John Jay College Of Criminal Justice | The City University of New York

The Justice Studies Minor offers students the opportunity to explore fundamental questions about justice from a humanistic and interdisciplinary perspective. Embedded in history, literature, and philosophy, the minor engages students in the study of constructions of justice that underlie social policy and criminal justice as well as in broader issues of morality and equity.

The Justice Studies minor will provide students who are majoring in the social sciences and sciences with an important supplementary perspective for their study of issues, policies, and laws concerned with justice. With its interdisciplinary focus, the minor will also enrich the curriculum of students majoring in one of the humanities. Its courses are designed to help students develop the skills of careful reading, critical thinking, and clear writing that are necessary for careers in law, public policy, civil service, and teaching.

Minor Advisor. Professor Bettina Carbonell, Department of English (212.237.8702, bcarbonell@jjay.cuny.edu)

Requirements. The minor in Justice Studies requires a total of 18 credits of which 6 credits are required and 12 credits are electives.

Required Subtotal: 6 credits

Humanities and Justice 250 Justice in the Western Traditions.
Humanities and Justice 310 Comparative Perspectives on Justice.

This two-course sequence provides an introduction to a consideration of "justice" as a personal, social, and political construction. Selected texts from history, literature, and philosophy introduce students to the complexities attending the meanings of justice from ancient to modern times. Issues under study may include retribution and revenge; justice as political and social equity; determinism, free will, and the "unjust" act; divinity, hierarchy, and community as perceived sources of justice (or injustice); the social construction of justice, injustice, and crime; law as a structure of rules representing, defining, and shaping justice. The sequence will explore how understandings of justice clarify the ethical and legal frameworks defining religion, the state, colonialism and national identity, race and ethnicity, gender, ruling, class, the family, and similar structures.

Students in HJS 250 study works concerned with justice in the western tradition (primarily historical, literary, and philosophical texts of Europe, Britain, and North America). With its focus on works from the Mideast, Africa, Asia, and the other Americas, HJS 310 expands student understandings of justice. It encourages comparative assessments between western and nonwestern forms of justice by studying contacts resulting from war and conquest, trade, and cultural exchange. HJS 310 also develops and extends the skills students have gained in HJS 250 by its comparative tasks, by supplementing primary texts with theoretical readings, and by more complex and lengthy writing assignments.

Electives Subtotal: 12 credits

Students must take four courses in literature, history, and/or philosophy selected from the humanities electives offered each semester that count toward the Justice Studies major. At least two of these courses must be at the 300-level or above. Students will select their electives in consultation with their Justice Studies advisor.

The electives listed below are supplemented every semester by new or experimental courses that are pertinent to Justice Studies as identified and approved by the minor advisor.

History Courses

African-American Studies History 275 African-American Military History and Social Justice
History 217 Three Hundred Years of New York City: A History of the Big Apple
History 219 Violence and Social Change in America
History 224 A History of Crime in New York City
History 260/Latin American and Latina/o Studies 260 History of Contemporary Cuba
History 277 American Legal History
History 290 Selected Topics in History
History 320 The History of Crime and Punishment in the United States
History 325 Criminal Justice in European Society, 1750 to the Present

Literature Courses

Literature 223/African American Studies Literature 223 African-American Literature
Literature 290 Selected Topics
Literature 313 Shakespeare
Literature 314 Shakespeare and Justice
Literature 315 American Literature and the Law
Literature 316 Gender and Identity in Western Literary Traditions
Literature 327 Crime and Punishment in Literature
Literature 340/African American Studies Literature 340 The African-American Experience: Comparative Racial Perspectives
Literature 390 Individual Reading
Literature 401 Special Topics
Spanish 208 The Theme of Justice in 20th-Century Spanish Literature

Philosophy Courses

Philosophy 203 Political Philosophy
Philosophy 302 Philosophical Issues of Rights
Philosophy 304 Philosophy of the Mind
Philosophy 310/Law 310 Ethics and Law
Philosophy 322 Judicial and Correctional Ethics
Philosophy 326 Topics in the History of Modern Thought
Philosophy 340 Utopian Thought
Philosophy 423/Government 423 Selected Topics in Justice

Total: 18 credits