Spring 2027

Criminal Injustice in America

Criminal Injustice in America examines how the carceral system is essential to constructing and maintaining the racial order in the United States through surveillance, detention, and legal processes.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Max Felker-Kantor

Summary

What you’ll be able to do

  • Trace how race and racial inequalities developed in the United States and how they affect present day circumstances.

  • Explain how the criminal legal system constructs and maintains a racially discriminatory order.

  • Examine the extent to which police and prosecutors target persons based on race and class.

  • Describe how crime and the crime rate are socially constructed.

  • Analyze the procedural/institutional conditions that limit a defendant's access to information.

  • Specify how constitutional rights of criminal defendants can facilitate state objectives.

  • Draw on course concepts to respectfully participate in our multicultural society and legal institutions.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades

No recorded grade history.

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Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
AFROAMER/LEGALST 434

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 250
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 250

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Examines how the carceral system has been essential to the construction and maintenance of the racial order in the United States. Studies the carceral system's use of surveillance, detention, violence, arrest, charging, pretrial detention, trial, sentencing, and probation through a lens of race. Explores the narratives and legal doctrines that legitimize carceral apartheid.

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Surveillance, detention, violence, arrest, charging, pretrial detention, trial, sentencing, and probation through a lens of race.
  • Narratives and legal doctrines that legitimize carceral apartheid.
  • Social construction of crime and the crime rate.
  • Constitutional rights of criminal defendants and state objectives.

Skills

  • Tracing racial inequality development and explaining how the criminal legal system constructs a racially discriminatory order.
  • Examining policing and prosecution targeting by race and class, and describing the social construction of crime and crime rates.
  • Analyzing procedural conditions limiting defendant information access and specifying how constitutional rights facilitate state objectives.
  • Drawing on course concepts to respectfully participate in multicultural society and legal institutions.

Grades

Instructor

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Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
AFROAMER/LEGALST 434 · Spring 2027

Criminal Injustice in America

Recorded 2026-10-14
AFROAMER/LEGALST 434 · Spring 2027

Criminal Injustice in America

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:106:027468",
    "course_id": "AFROAMER/LEGALST 434",
    "course_uid": "course_90fd9020ac9b8989ed722966",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "027468",
    "source_subject_id": "106",
    "title": "Criminal Injustice in America",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:535:027468",
    "course_id": "AFROAMER/LEGALST 434",
    "course_uid": "course_90fd9020ac9b8989ed722966",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "027468",
    "source_subject_id": "535",
    "title": "Criminal Injustice in America",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
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Madgrades

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "5777313b2272f0eeb1f56db834baf141cd22ea0b163fe6a01870459b8af255e9",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}