Minor in Sociology

The minor in sociology takes as its point of departure an understanding that human social groups ranging in size from two people playing chess, to the family, the delinquent gang, the work team, and ultimately the total community behave differently than any individual member. Students come away from the minor in sociology with a better understanding of the forces at work affecting group structures, functions, continuity and changes. Emphasis is given to various social problems such as crime and deviant behavior, minority relations and discrimination, social class and unemployment, social stratification and mobility, poverty and welfare, changing family relations, as well as such hotly debated contemporary issues as abortion, capital punishment, free speech and political correctness, legalized availability of marijuana, etc.

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Benefits of the Minor in Sociology

The sociology minor fosters the development of what has been creatively defined as “the sociological imagination,” i.e., the ability to see one’s personal difficulties such as unemployment, divorce, drug addiction, criminal victimization, or school bullying as not due to individual failures but as the consequence of debilitating social problems. Correspondingly their causes are seen as originating in social forces external to the individual and as such require not individual but collective solutions. It is an ideal minor for those majoring in criminal justice. Moreover many courses taken for the major in criminal justice such as crime and delinquency, criminology, white collar crime, or victimology may also apply to the minor in sociology.

Curriculum

Courses Include:

SOC 205D Contemporary Social Problems
This course explores major contemporary social problems, social disorganization, and personal deviance through an analysis of their nature, causes, and consequences. The social forces that contribute to their persistence as well as possible ameliorative strategies are examined.

SOC 321D Criminology
This course provides and analysis of the incidence, distribution, and etiology of crime. The criminal as a social type is profiled. Changing philosophies of corrections and variations in criminal behavior are explored theoretically and empirically.

SOC 301D Minority Groups
This course explores the process of ethnic, racial, and religious differentiation in complex societies, relationships of dominant and minority groups, theories of dominant and minority accommodation processes, reactions to dominance, prejudice, and discrimination. Modern social movements and effective strategies to counteract prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory social structures are also addressed.

CCJ 3666 Victimology
This course on the social and psychological characteristics of crime victims, their role in precipitating criminal acts, the difficulties they encounter in the criminal justice system, , alternative social programs for helping crime victims, and legal policies designed o compensate, protect, and rehabilitate victims of crime.

SOC 421 The Sociology of Law and the Legal Profession
This course examines the emergence of sociological juris prudence and the scientific study of the relation of law to society. The course also includes a focus upon the practice of law as a business and as a profession.