1) Over the past five years, The Atlantic and several other media outlets have covered the issue of school discipline reform as a way to stop the “school-to-prison” pipeline. School discipline has been shown to disproportionately affect certain groups of students and has detrimental impacts on their future prospects, but teachers have not always been happy about these changes, saying they make it more difficult to run their classrooms.
2) Since the 1980s, there has been a dramatic increase in the militarization of the police, in which state and local police forces are provided with military-style training, equipment, and technology. Advocates of the militarization of the police argue that it is necessary given the increasing use of military tactics and weaponry by criminals. Opponents argue that it goes against the traditional purpose of state and local police forces and blurs the line between the police and the military.
We are asking you to choose ONE of these topics and read all of the material related to that topic that has been posted for you on Moodle, and then consider how that material relates to ONE of the perspectives on the law that we have been discussing in the current unit of the course.
Your assignment is to choose ONE of these theories (Weber, Marx, Durkheim or Critical Legal Studies) and assess how well the theory explains what you’ve learned about the structure and/or enforcement of school discipline OR police militarization. To support your argument, use the sources provided on Moodle. Though the number of articles differs for each topic’s readings, the number of pages for each topic is approximately equal. Though Moodle organizes them alphabetically, we strongly recommend reading them in CHRONOLOGICAL order.
Organizational Requirements
• Skip the introduction and begin the paper with your thesis. Use the following template to construct your thesis:
The [enforcement/structure/enforcement and structure] of [school discipline/police militarization] [reflects/illustrates/demonstrates/undermines (or a word of your choice)] [Theory’s Name]’s theory of the relationship between law and society because [fill in a summary of your argument] _________.
Examples…
The enforcement of police militarization undermines Emile Durkheim’s theory of the relationship between law and society because…
The structure of school discipline illustrates Karl Marx’s theory of the relationship between law and society because…
• Spend the first paragraph or two following the thesis giving an economical, yet comprehensive and specific, summary of the theory’s key ideas about the relationship between law and society. Include definitions of key terms that the theory uses to make its points. (e.g., if you’re writing about Durkheim, you’ll need to name and define the collective conscience). Do not write about school discipline or police militarization and their enforcement in these paragraphs.
• Spend the remaining paragraphs of the paper defending your thesis using the knowledge about school discipline or police militarization and their enforcement that you’ve acquired from the sources posted on Moodle.
• In your conclusion you should examine the implications of your argument. Why does what you’ve argued matter?