CRJ 441-001 Social Science in Law
Fall 2002
M 4-6:30pm CBC A110
Instructor: Karu Hangawatte
Office: B210
Phone: 895-0243
Email:
Web Address: http://www.unlv.edu/faculty/karu
Office Hours: MWF 10:30-11:20am, M 6:30-7pm
Required Text: John Monahan and Laurens Walker, Social Science in Law, 5th ed., New York, New York: Foundation Press (2002).
Other Readings: From time to time, I may place current journal articles and case material on reserve.
Grading: The student is required to attend class regularly and participate in class discussions. Each student must demonstrate through oral contributions to class discussions that he/she has completed the assigned readings. I will grade students on their attendance and class participation.
Also, the student must complete three exams. The final exam will be a comprehensive test that covers the entire syllabus. The exams will have several questions that require short answers.
Attendance and participation: 10%
Midterm Exam: 30%
Final Exam: 60%
Course Objectives: This course deals with the use of social science as a tool for legal analysis from the perspective of legal scholar and practitioner rather than that of a social science observer. It asks the question of what social science has to offer the law rather than what law has to offer social science. It does not use law as the object of social science study. It is therefore different from a "law and society" course, sometimes called the "sociology of law" where law is the object of social science study.
It will examine important empirical issues on which social science research has been brought to bear in substantive legal areas. These include community standards in obscenity cases, merits of various criminal defenses such as the battered woman's syndrome, rape trauma syndrome, Vietnam syndrome and abused child syndrome in criminal law, the exclusionary rule and drug courier profiles in criminal procedure, school segregation by race and gender, the death penalty and the size of juries in the constitutional law, forseeability of harmful conduct and the quantity of damages in tort law, and measuring consumer confusion in intellectual property law.
SCHEDULE
Week TOPIC READING ASSIGNMENT
1 Orientation
Developments in American Jurisprudence Ch. 1
9/2 Labor Day Recess
2 Legal & Social Science Methods Ch. 2
3 Dispute Resolving: Ch. 3
Trademarks and Obscenity
4 Law Making: Segregation by Race Pp. 181-230
and Segregation by Gender
5 Law Making: First Amendment Pp. 230-249
Obscenity
6 Law Making: Sixth Amendment Pp. 249-296
Juries & Witnesses
7 Law Making: Eighth Amendment Pp. 296-316
Death Penalty
8 Law Making: The Exclusionary Rule Pp. 321-345
(Take Home Exam) Pp. 351-359
9 Determining Future Facts: Pp. 361-389
Bail, Parole & Punishments
10 Determining Present Facts: Pp. 404-436
Illegal weapons, automobiles, drugs & aliens
11/11 Veteran’s Day Recess
11 Determining Past Facts: Defendants Pp. 437-513
Defendant’s Culture, Subculture & Personality
12 Determining Past Facts: Victims Pp. 513-532
Rape Trauma Syndrome
Witnesses: Eye Witness Testimony Pp. 532-549
13 Social frameworks Pp. 554-561
Planning Litigation: Pp. 563-591
Choosing a Venue and a Jury
Final Exam Monday, 12/9 at 6pm