Current Graduate Courses

Required courses

• CRI 2010H - Methodological Issues in Criminology and Sociolegal Studies
• CRI 1020H - Law and State Power: Theoretical Perspectives (required for PhD students only; open to both MA and PhD students)

Other courses

• CRI 2140H - Guilt, Responsibility and Forensics
• CRI 2050H - Preventing Wrongful Convictions
• CRI 3110H - Qualitative Research Methods
• CRI 3130H - Policing
• CRI 3140H - Special Topics: Disability & Law
• CRI 3150H - Special Topics: The Comparative Case Study
• CRI 3220H - Organized Crime and Corruption
• CRI 3240H - Penology
• CRI 3310H - Special Topics: Indigenous Peoples, Law, and Gladue
• CRI 3340H - Special Topics: Gangs and Gang Policy
• CRI 3340H - Data Driven Prison Studies in the Global South
• CRI 3355H - Sentencing

Due to space limitations, Criminology graduate students will be given priority in graduate course enrolment; students in other programs must receive written permission from the instructor before enrolling in any of the centre's graduate courses.

2024-2025 Timetable

Course Delivery

All graduate classes are scheduled to be in person. 

Note: Students will be advised in the event of any changes in course delivery as the situations change. The University will follow public health advice.

Graduate courses at CrimSL will begin the week of September 9th in the fall session and on January 6th in the winter session.

Students outside CrimSL

If you are external to the unit and wish to enroll in a Criminology graduate course, please email the instructor for permission to enroll in the course and complete a course add form (School of Graduate Studies Add/Drop Form - PDF) . The form must be signed by the instructor and submitted to Jessica Chlebowski at crimsl.grad@utoronto.ca.

Schedule

Fall 2024

Winter 2025

Course Descriptions

Law and State Power: Theoretical Perspectives - CRI 1020H

• Professor M. Valverde
• This course does not require any particular background in either social/political theory or legal theory, but it does require a willingness to engage with some difficult texts. Its main purpose is to enable students to understand the theoretical assumptions underpinning ordinary discourses on the state’s power (including but not limited to the power to punish). The theme chosen as a ‘red thread’ unifying a diverse body of classical and contemporary theories is “the person of law." Students will be encouraged to pursue some original research on current-day questions about legal personhood, such as the legal status of AI or the age of consent, showing how contemporary debates draw on (usually without referencing) theoretical sources read and discussed in the course. 

Methodological Issues in Criminology & Sociolegal Studies - CRI 2010H

• Professor A. Laniyonu
• This course provides an overview of various methods used in criminological and social-legal research, such as interviews, focus groups, surveys, and linear regression. The course does not assume that students have a strong background in either statistics or research methods. By the end of the course students should feel comfortable reading the methodology section of research published in the field, should understand the strengths and weaknesses of commonly employed methodologies, and should be able to identify methodological limitations in published work. For students who intend to carry out their own research using conventional social science methods, this course will introduce you to some of the basic issues, concepts, principles, and procedures important for thinking about how to go about your research. This course, however, will not teach you how to analyze data. For those interested in the analysis of quantitative or qualitative data, you should take the centre’s or another department’s data analysis course(s).

Preventing Wrongful Convictions - CRI 2050H

• Professor P. Watson
• In this seminar we will explore how miscarriages of justice occur and what steps can be taken to prevent wrongful convictions. While the primary focus will be on Canada, the seminar will also sometimes canvass cases and issues that have arisen in several other jurisdictions including the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Each week will be dedicated to a discrete topic.

Guilt, Responsibility and Forensics - CRI 2140H **Not offered 2024-2025

• Professor C. Evans
• This course considers the barriers to establishing a defendant’s guilt in common law jurisprudence. It is particularly concerned with questions of criminal responsibility and forensics, and with the interaction of medical, social scientific and legal expertise in criminal contexts. The focus throughout is on the mind: How do we distinguish between disease and depravity, truthtelling and lies, bad luck and bad character? What kinds of technologies and expertise do we rely on to make these determinations? Common law jurisdictions have placed issues of mental capacity and culpability at the centre of their criminal justice systems. From assessing a defendant’s fitness to plead to the criminal trial, from sentencing to evaluating a prisoner’s eligibility for parole, the quality of a person’s mind, and our ability to know it, is essential. This course approaches the concept of the ‘guilty mind’ from a critical perspective, emphasizing the roles of culture, context and history in informing our understandings of the self, moral agency and sinfulness. The reading list privileges historical, literary and sociolegal works, especially monographs. These are paired with legal and policy-oriented articles that help us to bridge the gap between the past and the present, and to consider how recent developments in psychology and neuroscience affect how we approach the criminal mind today.

Qualitative Research Methods - CRI 3110H

• Professor B. Jauregui
• Qualitative methods for social science research entail systematic collection and analysis of data found in observations, interactions, and texts. Qualitative research methods generally are inductive, interpretive and labor intensive, and involve small samples and populations situated in a specific context. They also tend to require deeper and longer-term engagement with participants than most studies using quantitative methods. Qualitative research may allow understanding and explanation of some complexities of human practice, thought, and experience that elude enumeration or statistical analysis; it also may help discover new problems or provide scientific insights that work beyond the prediction of particular outcomes. In this course, we will examine and practice using various qualitative methods to consider how different approaches may be applied to answer specific questions, and to better understand and appreciate their potential contributions to building social theory and empirical knowledge.

Policing - CRI 3130H

• Professor L.  Kosals
• Police will be examined as one of the state institutions providing normative regulation and social order in connection with other institutions like politics, economy, and culture. The course will include three main parts: i) Police: origin, structure and functioning, ii) Police in changing social environment and iii) Police: continuous change and innovation. Students will receive knowledge on the origin and short history of the police, its structure and operation as well as about major challenges, organized crime, and terrorism. Last developments such as community, private and problem-oriented policing, a problem of reforming also will be examining. Additionally to Canadian police during this course police of some other well-established, developing and transition countries will be studied with the focus on comparative policing.

Special Topics: Disability and Law - CRI 3140H

• Professor D. Pettinichio
• This course situates disability within a social, legal and political context. We will focus on how disability serves as a basis for exclusion from social, political and economic institutions as well as the ways in which actors (policymakers, activists, etc.) seek to undermine this system of discrimination through institutional (i.e., the law) and extra-institutional means (i.e., protest). We will investigate a variety of related themes including the social model of disability, social justice, disability and the criminal justice system, antidiscrimination policy and judicial transformations, the evolution of the disability rights movement and the future of disability politics and the law.

Special Topics: The Comparative Case Study - CRI 3150

• Professor M. Light
• For many researchers, qualitative methods are associated with questions of understanding, empathy, and interpretation, whereas quantitative methods are more associated with explanation. In fact, though, qualitative data can also be used for causal analysis. This course introduces students to the comparative case study method, a form of research design in which systematic comparative analysis is used to make causal inferences based on primarily qualitative methods of data collection. We will also examine related approaches such as process tracing and counterfactuals. The course should be of interest to students contemplating independent research with qualitative data who would like to use their investigations to produce rigorous, robust causal claims..

Penology - CRI 3240H

• Professor Z. Levinsky  
• This course is designed to give students a critical overview of penology. It will provide students with a theoretical understanding of punishment as well as contextualize shifts in contemporary punishment. The course is divided into four units. The first unit we will look at the ‘old penology’ and examine the origins of the prison in Canada. The second unit will explore the ‘new penology’ and emergent lenses for studying punishment such as risk, neo-liberalism and colonialism. In the third unit, we will look ‘within’ prisons to explore experiences in the current penal landscape. In the final unit, we will look to other empirical sites and think about punishment beyond the prison such as in immigrant detention centres, school punishment and/or penal abolition movements.

Special Topics: Indigenous People, Law, and Gladue - CRI 3310H

• P. Holmes Skinner & S. Kelly
• This course examines the relationship between Indigenous people and the Canadian Justice system, with emphasis on Gladue principles as a framework for inquiry. It is well known that Indigenous people are disproportionately represented in jails across Canada, a situation that the Supreme Court in 1999 thought could fairly be termed a crisis, and a situation that persists today. The first half of this course will provide a foundation for understanding the legacies of earlier institutional structures and colonial policies and their impacts on Indigenous society. Students will be provided with a historical overview to better understand the social, political and economic factors that have shaped the relationship between Indigenous people and Canadian society. This will provide context on the background and systemic factors that may bring an Indigenous person into contact with the criminal justice system. The second half of the course will look at the purpose and application of Gladue principles at sentencing. Students will develop an understanding of the Gladue principles and critically examine their role as a restorative justice practice, the constraints and barriers to their application and the potential and limits the principles have in affecting change. Students will observe and critically analyze these principles in practice in Gladue Court at the start of the course and reflect upon those observations again at the end of the course.

Sentencing - CRI 3355H

• K. Crosbie & F. Mirza
• This course examines various aspects of the Canadian sentencing system. While this course is primarily legal in its orientation, the aim is to augment the discussion of sentencing issues with philosophical and criminological literature. The course commences with a consideration of the philosophical dimensions of sentencing and an examination of certain empirical issues, such as problems in assessing the efficacy of deterrence theory. During the course, considerable emphasis is placed on legislative and judicial approaches to the sentencing function and the procedural aspects of the Canadian sentencing system. Other topics for consideration include: the role of the victim, social context, sentencing Indigenous offenders, anti-Black racism, mandatory minimum sentences, and plea arrangements. The course also offers the opportunity to attend a busy plea court and a discussion a provincial court judge.

Special Topics: Gangs and Gang Policy - CRI 3340H

• J. Haag
• This course explores the history, nature, and extent of street gangs, focusing on juvenile street gangs and juvenile co-offending in Canada and the United States. Street gangs represent a long-standing concern for academics, policy-makers, law enforcement, and the public. From an academic perspective, street gangs have been a mainstay of sociological and criminological scholarship, with some of the earliest scholarship dating back over a century. We can learn much about our society by studying the composition, geographical distribution, and activities of street gangs. Indeed, street gangs do not form in a vacuum but are the product of a host of socio-structural and cultural forces, including alienation, systemic racism, economic marginalization, residential segregation, and the efficacy of our public institutions. Similarly, we can learn much about our society by considering the public, media, policy, and law enforcement responses to gangs. The course begins with a historical overview of urban street gangs and gang studies before progressing to discussions of the correlates and consequences of gang involvement, gang structure and organization, the social ecology of gangs, issues of race and gender, policing, and processes of gang desistance. Through the lens of theory, we will explore these issues to understand better the past, present, and future of the street gang problem, the relative merits of prevention and intervention strategies designed to address the issue, and the implications of these findings for public safety.

Criminology and the Policy-Making Process - CRI 3020H

• J. Kwon
• This course offers a unique experiential learning opportunity that balances the acquisition of theoretical and analytical tools with practical, real-world application. Students will explore different stages of the policy cycle and foundational theories of policy-making related to criminal justice by engaging with sociology, political science, public administration, and law and society scholarship. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to go on field trips to different sites in Toronto, where they will observe policy-making in action and engage with key stakeholders in the criminal justice system who are actively involved.
   
  The intent of this approach is to prepare students to be both analytical observers and critical participants in the policy-making process. For their assessment, students will choose a current issue in the criminal justice system as a case study, analyze the theoretical assumptions behind the policy framework, and evaluate the applicability of dominant theories.
   
  This is an intensive course designed to be completed in two months.

Organized Crime and Corruption - CRI 3220H

• Instructor TBD
• This course examines organized crime in its relationship to corruption. We focus on understanding organized crime and corruption in a societal setting including their embeddedness in politics, economy, social relations, and culture. The related concepts like informal economy, white-collar, and business/corporate/state crimes are also examined. The focus of the study is the origins and change, internal structures of organized crime, and its personnel in North America (USA and Canada) and around the globe. The types (petty and grand corruption, elite and political corruption, etc.) and functions of corruption in society are examined as well as its social mechanisms. We analyze policies to fight organized crime and corruption including criminal justice, economic regulation, and civil society responses.

Youth Crime & Youth Justice - CRI 3356H 

• Professor S. Wortley
• This course examines contemporary issues in youth culture, youth crime and youth justice.  The course will begin by discussing the definition of “youth” and how this concept has changed through time.  The course will then address a number of contemporary youth-related topics including: 1) Trends in youth crime and reporting to the police; 2) The impact of television, movies and video games on youth behaviour; 3) The relationship between Hip Hop music, youth resistance and youth violence; 3) The causes and consequences of street gangs; 4) Race, policing and criminal justice; 5) Perceptions of social injustice, youth radicalization and crime; 6) Cyberbulling; 7) Sexting and Youth Gender Relations; 8) Recent developments in youth justice; and 9) The implementation of evidence-based youth punishment and crime prevention policies.

Special Topics: Data Driven Prison Studies in the Global South - CRI 3340H

• Professor A. Medina
• Over the last decades, the interest for understanding the incarceration dynamics in the global south has been growing in the mainstream academic literature. Theoretical developments like southern criminology theories have pushed for a new theoretical framework to study global south contexts beyond the parameters of global north theories. Yet, despite the theoretical development of southern criminology, quantitative empirical studies have not been widely developed in the global south despite the increasing push for developing data driven criminal policies. In this course, we will study the existing theoretical accounts explaining prison population growth and their connection to the existing quantitative literature on prison expansion. We will study how despite the theoretical development of southern frameworks to study incarceration dynamics in the global south, most of the quantitative foundation of our understanding of the global south dynamics relies on empirical studies developed in global north contexts. Through studying these quantitative empirical research designs, we will be able to identify the cases where generalizations make sense across countries and contexts, and when socio-institutional differences make quantitative evidence not extensible to other cases.

Timetable