SOCI 306 - Environmental Racism and Injustice

3 Credits

(Every Spring semester)
Prerequisite(s): SOCI 101 Introduction to Sociology. What do you think of when you hear the word crime? When the term crime is mentioned, one usually thinks of violent crimes and the theories that attempt to explain them. A fairly new and growing field in criminology is Environmental Criminology, which is the study of environmental laws, corporate policies, and victims who are disproportionately harmed by them. As we enter the warmest anticipated decade temperature wise, climate change is believed to be one of the premiere existential threats of our time. At the current rate, melting ice sheets, more extreme natural disasters, and rising sea-levels will result in more climate catastrophes and refugees. Who is to blame? Is it capitalism, politicians, corporations, or the media? In addition, we cover case studies of environmental harm with a focus on a race, gender, and class analysis. The knowledge attained throughout this course will form your research proposal, wherein you examine an environmental issue theoretically, propose a research method to examine the issue, and suggest policy recommendations.