Spring 2027

Psychology, Law, and Social Policy

Examines the role of psychological principles, research evidence, and social science in U.S. laws, focusing on policies and mechanisms of social control of human behavior.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Michael Caldwell

Exams were described as extremely difficult, covering roughly 15 lectures and dense readings. Students noted that tests often required recalling specific details from authors rather than broad concepts.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify the ways that psychological science interfaces with social policy and the criminal justice system.

  • Explain how psychological science can inform police and prosecution procedures.

  • Summarize the ways that mechanisms of social control are applied to mentally ill individuals.

  • Describe psychosocial factors that distort or interfere with the goals of the criminal justice system.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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Prerequisites

Course map

PSYCH 202

PSYCH 401 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

GREGORY VAN RYBROEK is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHAEL CALDWELL is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

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

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Gregory Van Rybroek

The course features almost no homework but relies on four heavy exams. Students often describe the class structure as chaotic but fascinating if they stay engaged.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.23 GPA, 53.7% A/AB (n=188 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.35 GPA, 59.1% A/AB (n=186 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.17 GPA, 51.8% A/AB (n=195 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Michael Caldwell

Exams were described as extremely difficult, covering roughly 15 lectures and dense readings. Students noted that tests often required recalling specific details from authors rather than broad concepts.

Past student reviews · Michael Caldwell

Students reported enjoying the class because instructors frequently broke up long lectures with interesting and funny videos.

Topics

  • Society's definition of membership and exclusion/restriction from open society.
  • Clinical-legal processes for determining disposition of marginalized individuals.
  • Mechanisms excluding individuals via criminal and civil court processes.
  • Role of psychologists as behavioral experts in courts and social policy shaping.

Skills

  • Identify intersections of psychological science with social policy and criminal justice.
  • Explain how psychological science informs police and prosecution procedures.
  • Summarize mechanisms of social control applied to mentally ill individuals.
  • Describe psychosocial factors interfering with criminal justice goals.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

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.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

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

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "d1574c7e8e26090296098f7cf109e1859a6dfd7b955e19bd3c8341c185ce48ba",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}