Below you will find sample examination questions for CJS/LGS/SOC 321 for Fall 2019

Below are sample quiz questions from the last time the class was taught.

1. According to Zackin, (“Popular Constitutionalism’s Hard When You’re Not Very Popular: Why the ACLU Turned to the Courts”) in order to understand the reasons the ACLU turned to the courts, we must understand the role of the state (i.e. the government) as the ACLU came to understand it. How did the ACLU come to understand the role of the state? Explain.

2. According to Tyler and Boeckmann, (“Three Strikes and You Are Out, but Why?”) why does declining moral cohesion lead to punitiveness? Explain.

3. According to Garth and Sterling, (“From Legal Realism to Law and Society”) ultimately the sociologists “who were closest to law” made a particular decision over how to proceed. What was that decision? Explain.

Below are sample final examination questions that came from the actual final examination given the last time the class was taught. The last is an example of the "long essays" that appear on the final.

1. Explain the school of thought called “legal realism.” What does this school of thought say about what we call “strict constructionism”? Explain.

2.. Law has a number of limitations as a source of social change. Identify and explain any two of those limitations.

3. A recent political and legal controversy has involved groups who spend money to support or oppose political candidates in elections. Some people have argued that spending such money is a form of free speech which has to be permitted. Others have argued that money is not speech and that the current system allows wealthy outside influences to overwhelm local elections and essentially buy the elections. What kinds of data would we have to collect and examine to shed light on this issue? What groups would oppose limiting this kind of political spending and what groups would favor such limitations? What kinds of theories of law would explain this? Explain and provide examples.