2024-2025 Undergraduate Bulletin

Deviance, Crime and Culture, Bachelor of Arts

The major in Deviance, Crime and Culture uses an interdisciplinary and ethnographic approach to train students to research, analyze and understand deviance and crime in the context of culture. With a focus on experiential learning through ethnographic fieldwork, core requirements include first-hand study of social problems, theoretical training in cross-cultural analysis, in social, political and structural inequality and in historical and contemporary interventions aimed at achieving social justice. Students learn qualitative research and writing skills including observation, participant-observation, interviewing, mapping, case studies and archival research as well as quantitative literacy. A wide range of interdisciplinary elective courses give students an opportunity to develop their own areas of expertise such as interpersonal violence, crime and transgression and individual and group conflict. In the capstone seminar students integrate current social and cultural theory with real-world ethnography to design and deliver a senior research proposal or an ethnographic field study on a subject of their choice. The professional skills students develop through this major prepare them for either careers or advanced study in the fields of criminal and social justice, law enforcement, community justice and intervention, civic activism and social science research.

Learning Outcomes. Students will:

  • Understand and appreciate culture and diversity, exploring these subjects at the level of the individual and at the level of whole societies.
  • Understand social science concepts of deviance, crime and culture.
  • Develop and refine written and oral communication skills including the presentation of data and analysis.
  • Develop information and ethical literacy skills. 
  • Demonstrate experience in carrying out a research project involving ethnographic fieldwork utilizing qualitative research methods.  
  • Be prepared to work in fields that require: a nuanced perception of cultural difference and the ability to integrate multiple threads of inquiry into a comprehensive whole. 
  •  

Credits Required.

Deviance, Crime and Culture Major
39
General Education 42
Electives 39
Total Credits Required for B.A. Degree 120


Coordinator.
 Professor Marta-Laura Haynes (mhaynes@jjay.cuny.edu), Department of Anthropology..

Advising Information.  Advising Resource Page (including a Sample Four Year Degree Map). . 

Additional information. Students who enrolled for the first time at the College or changed to this major in September 2018 or thereafter must complete the major in the form presented here. Students who enrolled prior to that date may choose the form shown here or the earlier version of the major. A copy of the earlier version may be obtained in the 2017-18 Undergraduate Bulletin.

Note: Former title: Culture and Deviance Studies. The title change was approved by NYSED in May 2020.

Foundational Courses

Choose one.

ANT 101Introduction to Anthropology

3

CJBA 110Major Issues in Criminal Justice

3

CJBS 101Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System

3

PSY 101Introduction to Psychology

3

SOC 101Introduction to Sociology

3

Advisors recommendation: Several of these courses can fulfill areas of the Gen Ed Program: ANT 101 satisfies the Flexible Core: World Cultures and Global Issues, PSY 101 and SOC 101 fulfill the Flexible Core: Individual and Society.

Subtotal: 3

Part One. Ethnographies of Deviance Topical Core

ANT 110/SOC 110Drug Use & Abuse

3

ANT 210/PSY 210Sex and Culture

3

ANT 230Culture and Crime

3

Subtotal: 9

Part Two. Theoretical Foundations

Select two.

ANT 315Systems of Law, Justice and Injustice Across Cultures

3

ANT 330American Cultural Pluralism, Justice and the Law

3

ANT 340Anthropology and the Abnormal

3

Subtotal: 6

Part Three. Methodological Skills

ANT 325Ethnographic Research Methods in Anthropology

3

ANT 327Writing for a Multi-Cultural World: Ethnographic Writing

3

Subtotal: 6

Part Four. Interdisciplinary Thematic Clusters

Select four of the following courses. Only two may be at the 100-level. (Note: Students can focus on one cluster of particular interest or choose courses from two or three clusters). 

The Deviance, Crime and Culture major enables students to select thematic clusters both across disciplines and within disciplines. Thus students are advised to consult the College Bulletin course descriptions for specific prerequisite information for particular courses. For example, all GOV, POL, PSC, PSY, and SOC courses require a 101 prerequisite in their respective disciplines. Students are advised to plan their cluster course selections with this in mind. Likewise, some 200-, 300-, and 400-level courses are sequence-based, meaning that the topic and theme is continued at the upper-level, should students wish to pursue further study of a topic or subject. Students wishing to concentrate their courses beyond the anthropology core in psychology should be aware that, for example, PSY 331 requires PSY 266 and PSY 268 as prerequisites. PSY 350 requires PSY 266, PSY 268 as well as PSY 331 as prerequisites. Please note that some concentration courses do not require specific prerequisites beyond the basic 101-level but do require ENG 101 or ENG 201

 

A. Abuse, Interpersonal Relationships and Human Services

ANT 224/PSY 224/SOC 224Death, Dying and Society: A Life Crises Management Issue

3

ANT 319Anthropology of Global Health

3

COR 230/PSC 230Sex Offenders in the Criminal Justice System

3

LLS 265/HIS 265Class, Race and Family in Latin American History

3

PSY 161Chemical Dependency and the Dysfunctional Family

3

PSY 231Developmental Psychology

3

PSY 234Psychology of Human Sexuality

3

PSY 255Group Dynamics in Chemical Dependency Counseling

3

PSY 266Understanding Addiction through Research

3

PSY 268Therapeutic Interventions in Chemical Dependency

3

PSY 331/CSL 331Assessment and Clinical Evaluation in Chemical Dependency Counseling

3

PSY 342/CSL 342Introduction to Counseling Psychology

3

PSY 350/CSL 350Advanced Topics in Chemical Dependency Counseling

3

PSY 375Family Conflict and the Family Court

3

PSY 480Ethical and Professional Issues in Chemical Dependency Counseling

3

SOC 160Social Aspects of Alcohol Abuse

3

SOC 380Sociology Laboratory in Dispute Resolution Skill Building

3

STA 250Principles and Methods of Statistics

3

B. Crime, Deviance, Institutions and Culture

AFR 210Drugs and Crime in Africa

3

ANT 317Anthropology of Development

3

ANT 328/ENG 328Forensic Linguistics: Law, Language and Legal Discourse

3

ANT 345/PSY 345Culture, Psychopathology and Healing

3

ANT 347Structural Violence & Social Suffering

3

COR 101Introduction to Corrections

3

COR 201The Law and Institutional Treatment

3

COR 202The Administration of Correctional Programs for Juveniles

3

COR 250Rehabilitation of the Offender

3

ECO 170Crime, Class, Capitalism: The Economics of Justice

3

ECO 215Economics of Regulation and the Law

ECO 315/PSC 315An Economic Analysis of Crime

3

ECO 325Economics and the Law

3

HIS 224A History of Crime in New York City

3

HIS 320Topics in the History of Crime & Punishment in U.S

3

POL 250International Law and Justice

3

PSC 101Introduction to Police Studies

3

PSC 201Police Organization and Administration

3

PSC 202Police and Diversity

3

PSC 235Women in Policing

3

PSY 242Psychological Disorders and Distress (formerly Abnormal Psychology)

3

PSY 370/LAW 370Psychology and the Law

3

PSY 372Psychology of Criminal Behavior

3

PSY 373Correctional Psychology

3

SOC 203Criminology

3

SOC 216Probation and Parole: Theoretical and Practical Approaches

3

SOC 236/CRJ 236Victimology

3

SOC 240Deviance and Conformity

3

SOC 301Penology

3

SOC 302Social Problems

3

SOC 308The Sociology of Violence

3

STA 250Principles and Methods of Statistics

3

C. Individual and Group Identities and Inequalities

AFR 220Law and Justice in Africa

3

AFR 237Institutional Racism

3

AFR 250Political Economy of Racism

3

AFR 317Environmental Racism

3

ANT 212Applied Anthropology

3

ANT 220Language and Culture

3

ANT 229Global Asian Popular Culture

3

ANT 324Anthropology of Work

3

ANT 332Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in Anthropological Perspective

3

ANT 339Asian American Identity and Struggles for Justice

3

HIS 214Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States

3

LAW 313/POL 313The Law and Politics of Race Relations

3

LLS 220Human Rights and Law in Latin America

3

LLS 250Drugs, Crime and Law in Latin America

3

LLS 261/HIS 261Revolution and Social Change in Contemporary Latin America

3

LLS 321 Latinx Community Fieldwork

4

LLS 322Latinx Struggles for Civil Rights & Social Justice

3

LLS 325Latinx Experience of Criminal Justice

3

POL 246Politics of Global Inequality

3

POL 320International Human Rights

3

PSY 221Social Psychology

3

PSY 332Psychology of Adolescence

3

PSY 333Psychology of Gender

3

PSY 336Group Dynamics

3

SOC 215Women and Social Control in the U.S.

3

SOC 232Social Stratification

3

SOC 309Youth, Crime and Justice

3

SOC 314Theories of Social Order

3

SOC 351Crime and Delinquency in Asia

3

SOC 420/CRJ 420Women and Crime

3

STA 250Principles and Methods of Statistics

3

Subtotal: 12

Part Five. Required Capstone

ANT 450Major Works in Deviance and Social Control

3

Total Credit Hours: 39