HIST309 — Crime and Punishment in Latin American History
HIST 309 - Crime and Punishment in Latin American History HIST 309 - Crime and Punishment in Latin American History (3 credits) This course examines the history of crime and punishment in Latin America from the colonial period to the present. Using a thematic approach, the course explores how societies defined crime, enforced order, and justified punishment, and how those definitions reflected changing ideas about morality, authority, race, gender, class, and citizenship. Topics may include colonial legal systems, policing and prisons, slavery and coercion, revolution and state formation, urbanization and crime, political violence, and contemporary debates over justice and human rights. Rather than treating crime as simply deviant behavior, the course approaches it as a historical lens for understanding power, social control, and resistance. Students analyze how legal institutions operated in practice, how ordinary people experienced the justice system, and how crime and punishment shaped everyday life as well as broader political change. Through engagement with historical scholarship and primary sources, the course develops students’ ability to interpret evidence, evaluate historical arguments, and think critically about the relationship between law, violence, and society. Grade or P/NC. alternate years or when demand warrants. Course Registration