A sociological examination of violent crime and crimefighting in America. Topics include: violent urban youth gangs and crews; ethnically-based organized crime "families"; the recruitment, socialization, argot, culture, and worldviews of professional criminals; the stages of criminal careers; the ethics of criminal groups; the violence emerging out of the drug trade; the work worlds and habits of mind of crimefighters, with a special focus on uniformed police officers, detectives, and prosecutors; the symbolic representations of criminals and crimefighters in American popular culture; the relationships between law, crime, moral narratives, and social order; and the current crisis of the criminal justice system. A special section of the course will be devoted to analyzing the process of criminal investigation. Requirements: a term paper, a midterm, and a final exam. No prerequisites. Enrollment limited to 40.