Instructions: Below are 6 essay questions. Based on what you have learned this semester, pick 2 and answer them. Read each question very carefully, and be sure to answer the entire question. There is no outside research necessary to answer these questions, but you’ll need to draw on your course materials to answer them. Thus, I expect you to cite the course readings and lecture notes where appropriate (use APA style), and to provide a bibliography at the end (also APA style). These are meant to be responded to in essay format, not short answer, and so your responses should be more than a single paragraph or two.
(1) We’ve discussed the US policy of mass incarceration at length throughout the course of the semester. Has this policy worked in terms of crime control? What have been the effects, both intentional and unintentional, of mass incarceration?
(2) Compare and contrast the due process and crime control perspectives of criminal justice and provide examples of how each has contributed to criminal justice policies and practices.
(3) The vast majority of our current crime control policy is based on the notion that crime is a rational choice. Is criminal behavior a rational choice, or might there be other explanations as to why individuals commit crimes? What are the advantages and disadvantages of limiting our crime control policy to only rational choice explanations of crime?
(4) Many have argued that it is impossible to separate criminal justice from politics. What does politics have to do with the operation of CJ agencies and the organizational environment in which they function? Provide specific examples to support your answer.
(5) How has the police function changed in the US over time? Where are we now in terms of the police function, and what is (or should be) the guiding philosophy of policing currently?
(6) Why do wrongful convictions occur in the CJ system? Why are such convictions harmful to the CJ system and public safety more generally, and are there ways in which we might reduce wrongful convictions?
