Sociology Courses

Course Description: The social world is often taken for granted or reduced to explanations that stem from conventional wisdom and personal experience. This course is designed to encourage students to develop social scientific frameworks for analyzing the social world in a context that transcends conventional wisdom and personal experience. The major question is "What are the social forces operating in society and often beyond the control of individuals that shape individual behaviors and societal changes?" Topics include culture, socialization, social and economic inequalities, social structure, organizational behavior, social groups, deviance, and social institutions (e.g., family, religion, education, and political economy). A print-based, open enrollment version of this course is available with special permission of the instructor. For further information, please email geyoung@adams.edu.

Course Description: Criminology is an introductory course to the study of crime and criminal behavior with special emphasis on theories of crime and delinquency causation, rates and extent of crime, and social control agents (i.e., the police, courts, and "corrections"). Special topics examined may include gangs, white-collar crimes, property crimes, victimless crimes, and organized crime. Prerequisite: SOC 201: The Sociological Imagination.

Course Description: The course is designed to provide the student with a survey of selected contemporary social problems. Social problems addressed in the class may include poverty, addiction and substance abuse, mental health, violence with a focus on family violence, crime, teen sexuality and pregnancy, and health care issues. The causes, severity, and consequences of the selected social problems are explored. In addition, social welfare strategies for alleviating social problems are presented.

Course Description: This is designed to provide the student with a survey of selected contemporary social problems. Social problems addressed in the class may include poverty, addiction and substance abuse, mental health, violence with a focus on family violence, crime, teen sexuality and pregnancy, and health care issues. The causes, severity, and consequences of the selected social problems are explored. In addition, social welfare strategies for alleviating social problems are presented. Prerequisite: SOC 201: The Sociological Imagination.

Course Description: Students volunteer to provide community service in a human services or criminal justice agency setting. Students volunteer time and effort in exchange for practical experience. A print-based, open enrollment version of this course is available with special permission of the instructor. For further information, please email mwmartin@adams.edu.

Course Description: Description This course presents a general overview of the statistical methods most commonly used in Sociology and the Social Sciences. As a laboratory component, students will become proficient in SPSS, a computer program designed to aid statistical analysis. These skills will enable the student to: read popular applications of statistics in the media with a critical eye; assess the use of statistics in the professional sociological literature; and use statistical tools to answer the sociological questions of interest.

Course Description: This course explores the relationship between education and society, with special emphasis on the effects of this relationship on the lives of students in the American education system.

Course Description: The focus of this course is on the interrelated, ascribed statuses of race, social class, gender, and sexual orientation in American society, how they are perceived and reinforced, the social tensions that result, and the dynamics of change.

Course Description: This course will provide an overview of the family from a sociological perspective. The family is considered to be one of the most private and pervasive institutions in society. All of us have had contact with at least one family, and many of us will be involved in several different families during our lifetime. Our experiences point to the numerous transformations in family life. To obtain a better understanding of these changes, recent sociological research and data on the family will be utilized in this course. In addition to examining the history of the family, the course will study the contemporary family and its diversity. The course will examine traditional marriage/family arrangements and alternative processes of mate selection and family formation. Finally, the course will examine parenting, the relationship between work and family, divorce and reconstituted families.

Course Description: This class will address the criminal justice system that has evolved and been put in place to address the complex and multifaceted problems of crime. In this course, we will examine agencies of justice and the procedures they use to identify and treat criminal offenders. We will examine the police, courts, and corrections as the primary components of the criminal justice system, discussing where the system works and where it does not. We will also discuss the constitution and the law and how it pertains to the operation of the criminal justice system.

Course Description: This course considers the nature of delinquency, including an analysis of treatment methods and the juvenile justice system. It provides an analytical study of the statistics, trends, characteristics, and causes of juvenile delinquency. The theories of delinquency, social influences on delinquency, the history of the juvenile justice system, the juvenile justice process, and prevention models currently used in the United States will be examined.

Course Description: This course offers information about the private troubles of individuals and families in terms of the social problems or issues that affect them. It gives the student a look at life from the standpoint of marginalized and disadvantaged people and avoids blaming the victim or blaming the society. It discusses the resilience and strengths of diverse populations-at-risk. It makes the case that human behavior is caused by many factors in reciprocal interaction. Individuals influence society just as they are influenced by society, and the troubles individuals face in their own lives are, as a rule, inseparable from the problems society experiences as a whole.

Course Description: This course examines the historical and socio-cultural factors which influence the creation and maintenance of poverty and social inequality. Emphasis will be on structural influences on, and theoretical explanations of, poverty and social inequality. This course will also focus on the implications for policy and social programs aimed at poverty and other social class issues. In addition, there will be exploration of systems of power, privilege, and domination that are central to the American social structure. Finally, the issues of empowerment, resistance, and solutions to poverty and social inequality will be assessed.

Course Description: This course investigates the problem of school violence within the context of "the culture of violence," a term used by international social scientists for the past four decades to describe the United States. Because violence and school violence are situated in the framework of larger historical, political, economic, cultural and social influences, the discipline of sociology is well suited to investigate the problem while, at the same time, acknowledging the development of the self within this framework. This course will broaden the student's understanding of violence by learning to recognize and take into account these larger influences from a sociological perspective.

Course Description: The course beings with an overview of the concept of punishment and goes on to study the burden of proof and criminal defenses; it also provides a critical look at the most common crimes. Students will learn common terminology in criminal law and how to consider a crime thoroughly in terms of its elements.

Course Description: Available online or Text-based (please specify format in "comments" section of registration form). The Section numbers are: Print: #1122; Online #1123 Link to syllabus.

Course Description: (Course is also available in print format.) This intensive online program is designed to train and qualify students to provide assistance to crime victims. The course provides an overview of criminal procedure and discusses the devastating effects crime can have on its victims.

Course Description: (Course is also available - online.)
This intensive print based program is designed to train and qualify students to provide assistance to crime victims. The course provides an overview of criminal procedure and discusses the devastating effects crime can have on its victims.

Course Description: This course examines violence in the family from sociological and criminological perspectives. It includes the types and causes of violence in families and domestic units, especially those directed against women and children (woman battering, courtship and dating conflict, and child abuse). Throughout the various types of family violence, intervention and prevention measures are examined as well as the social and legal implications of these measures.

Course Description: This course focuses on the context and correlation of drug use, relationship with crime and delinquency, and societal reaction to drug abuse. Also discussed is the study of sociological and social psychological explanations of drug-using behaviors and of legal and medical control of drugs. Finally, topics include changes in the legal status of drugs, cross-cultural and historical variations in the control of drugs, and social epidemiology of drug use in contemporary society will be examined.

Course Description: This course is an in-depth study of the many facets of crime victimization including the crime victim, the offender, society-at-large, and the dynamics of the victim-offender relationship. Additionally, the social, economic, and demographic variables associated with crime victims as well as victimization rates will be addressed. Finally, crime victim assistance programs, victim compensation, and victim participation in the criminal justice process will be discussed. Prerequisite: SOC 201 The Sociological Imagination.

Course Description: This course provides an introduction to the profession of sociology and the various career options available to graduates. Occupational and graduate school options are explored in detail through library research, presentations, obversational experiences, and informational interviews. Skills for job interviewing, resume development, and professional correspondence are explored. Prerequisite: SOC 201: The Sociological Imagination.

Course Description: This course will look at Social Psychology from a sociological perspective. It will consider (1) social experience gained from the individuals' participation in social groups, (2) interaction with others, (3) the effects of the cultural environment on both social experience and interactions with others, and (4) the emergence of social structure from these interactions. Social psychology deals with the interface between society and individuals. It explores the influence of social forces on individual behavior, repeated patterns of everyday behavior, and keys to understanding everyday actions in many areas of human conduct. No other course in sociology deals so directly with understanding the ways in which people function on a daily basis. Prerequisite SOC 201 The Sociological Imagination with a grade of C or above.

Course Description: This course will look at Social Psychology from a sociological perspective. It will consider (1) social experience gained from the individuals' participation in social groups, (2) interaction with others, (3) the effects of the cultural environment on both social experience and interactions with others, and (4) the emergence of social structure from these interactions. Social psychology deals with the interface between society and individuals. It explores the influence of social forces on individual behavior, repeated patterns of everyday behavior, and keys to understanding everyday actions in many areas of human conduct. No other course in sociology deals so directly with understanding the ways in which people function on a daily basis. Prerequisite SOC 201 The Sociological Imagination with a grade of C or above.

Course Description: The aim of the course is for students to become familiar with the continuing differences and inequalities between women and men in the contemporary United States, and to begin to explain why and how they occur. Understanding gender as it relates to race, class, and sexual orientation is an important organizing framework of the course. The gendered arrangements in a variety of social contexts such as the schools, the media, the family, the economy, religion and health will be studied. Prerequisite: SOC 201: The Sociological Imagination.

Course Description: The aim of the course is for students to become familiar with the continuing differences and inequalities between women and men in the contemporary United States, and to begin to explain why and how they occur. Understanding gender as it relates to race, class, and sexual orientation is an important organizing framework of the course. The gendered arrangements in a variety of social contexts such as the schools, the media, the family, the economy, religion and health will be studied. Prerequisite: SOC 201: The Sociological Imagination.

Course Description: This course covers the major theories of society in their classical and contemporary forms. This course is a requirement for the sociology major and an option for the sociology minor. It is a useful elective.

Course Description: This course is covers the major theories of society in their classical and contemporary forms. This course is a requirement for the sociology major and an option for the sociology minor. It is a useful elective for any major.

Course Description: This course will focus on corrections as one of the components of the American criminal justice system and its operation. The philosophical and historical underpinnings of punishment and corrections will be analyzed and compared (e.g., punishment vs. rehabilitation.) Prerequisites: Sociology 201, Introduction to Sociology; Sociology 346, Criminal Justice.

Course Description: Many sociology students across the U.S. look upon the Methods course with disdain, dread, fear, and/or loathing. You needn't! This is a step-by-step course in which you learn about research methods by actually doing a research proposal. First, students will be instructed in the fundamentals of research design and implementation, including ethical considerations. Students will read and study the research proposals of selected sociologists. Then students will engage in hands-on proposals to practice research methods. Finally, students will design a research proposal. Components of the proposal include: a) the Worksheet: Designing a Research Question, b) Introduction and Bibliography, c) Literature Review, d) Methods, and e) Findings and Conclusion. During the computer lab segment of the course, students will learn and practice analyzing data from the General Social Survey (GSS) and from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2000 data using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). By the end of the class, you will have a clearer understanding of the complexities and joys of doing sociological research. Prerequisites: SOC 311 Social Statistics with a minimum grade of C AND Junior status.

Course Description: Many sociology students across the U.S. look upon the Methods course with disdain, dread, fear, and/or loathing. You needn't! This is a step-by-step course in which you learn about research methods by actually doing a research proposal. First, students will be instructed in the fundamentals of research design and implementation, including ethical considerations. Students will read and study the research proposals of selected sociologists. Then students will engage in hands-on proposals to practice research methods. Finally, students will design a research proposal. Components of the proposal include: a) the Worksheet: Designing a Research Question, b) Introduction and Bibliography, c) Literature Review, d) Methods, and e) Findings and Conclusion. During the computer lab segment of the course, students will learn and practice analyzing data from the General Social Survey (GSS) and from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2000 data using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). By the end of the class, you will have a clearer understanding of the complexities and joys of doing sociological research. Prerequisites: SOC 311 Social Statistics with a minimum grade of C AND Junior status.

Course Description: Prerequisite: Human Behavior and the Social Environment. Analyzes the historical development, current content, and adequacy of social welfare policies in the United States. Special emphasis is placed on policy areas such as antipoverty, income security and redistribution, mental health, and aging.

Course Description: This course examines violence in the family from sociological and criminological perspectives. It includes the types and causes of violence in families and domestic units, especially those directed against women and children (woman battering, courtship and dating conflict, and child abuse). Throughout the various types of family violence, intervention and prevention measures are examined as well as the social and legal implications of these measures. Prerequisite: SOC 201 The Sociological Imagination.

Course Description: This course seeks to understand the origin of terrorism. This course has been designed to analyze the ever-changing society with the influence of terrorism. A survey of different terrorist attacks will be examined. This course will take a multicultural perspective as different groups of people are studied and the threat of terrorism is applied. This course will also offer practical approaches to dealing with the threat of terrorism.

Course Description: This course seeks to understand the origin of terrorism. This course has been designed to analyze the ever changing society with the influence of terrorism. A survey of different terrorist attacks will be examined. This course will take a multicultural perspective as different groups of people are studied and the threat of terrorism is applied. This course will also offer practical approaches to dealing with the threat of terrorism.

Course Description: Students are placed in a supervised internship with a human services agency in the community. Students volunteer time and effort in exchange for practical experience. Service areas suitable for internship placements include social services for families and children, community mental health, domestic violence treatment and prevention, emergency services for the homeless, social services for the elderly in institutional settings, and hospice services, to mention only a few possibilities. A print-based, open enrollment version of this course is available with special permission of the instructor. For further information, please email mwmartin@adams.edu.

Course Description: Students are placed in a supervised internship with a criminal justice or law enforcement agency in the community. Students volunteer time and effort in exchange for practical experience. Service areas suitable for internship placements include city and county law enforcement, state highway patrol, residential facilities for juveniles, juvenile diversion, and adult probation, to mention only a few possibilities. A print-based, open enrollment version of this course is available with special permission of the instructor. For further information, please email mwmartin@adams.edu.