CRIM 492: RS: Honors Seminar II

CRIM 492-001: RS: Honors Seminar II
(Spring 2022)

10:30 AM to 01:10 PM R

Krug Hall 209

Section Information for Spring 2022

In the United States, nearly 2,800 people are known to have been exonerated after being wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit. Research on wrongful convictions has grown in recent years and we have learned much about the factors that contribute to such errors (e.g., eyewitness misidentifications, false confessions, etc.), how injustices are discovered and overturned, and what effects wrongful conviction and incarceration have on exonerees, their communities, and others involved in their cases. The growth of research in this area has accompanied the development of the “innocence movement,” a national (and international) advocacy movement that seeks to exonerate the innocent, reform the criminal legal system, and educate policymakers, practitioners, and the public. Importantly, cases of wrongful conviction are increasingly shared with the public through news and social media, film and TV, documentaries, podcasts, and books. Many have argued, and some research has found, that such stories are consequential for public opinion about the criminal legal system.

This honors seminar will focus on examining wrongful convictions from a variety of perspectives. We will discuss fundamental knowledge about such errors—how often they happen, how they happen, and their consequences. We will, however, go beyond the cases, and explore the various factors that shape public knowledge about and attitudes toward the justice system, and build on a burgeoning area of research that explores how much people know about wrongful convictions and how learning about them affects public opinion on other issues.

Course Information from the University Catalog