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Policing and Society

Overview

About the course: This course introduces the history of policing in the United States, a theoretical and practical examination of the police function, an analysis of unequal police enforcement patterns across race and gender, and a consideration of major challenges facing contemporary policing, including issues of technology, accountability, and reform.  

This lesson allows students to explore a collection of primary sources related to three presidential policing task forces from the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will read and analyze the primary sources to identify similar themes, issues, and crises in policing throughout U.S. history.

Learning Objectives

  • Learn how to analyze textual and visual primary sources to identify recurring themes or parallels in police commissions throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
  • Lean how to collaboratively analyze and compare the perspectives of primary sources.
  • Develop skills to critically examine, interpret, and evaluate historical evidence.

About this Lesson Plan

Discipline(s)

Public Administration, Sociology

Time Needed

1 class period (75 minutes)

Original Course

PA/SOC 339: Policing & Society

Lesson Plan Created By

Dr. Samantha Simon, School of Government and Public Policy, and Niamh Wallace, University of Arizona Libraries