Soc 366 -- Punishment and Society
Team Project
Fall, 2011
aThis team project gives you the opportunity to apply all the human capital you have gained
through your participation in this course. There are multiple steps and points along the way to
hand in materials and earn top marks for you and your group.
Your Learning Objectives are:
1) Apply your understanding of the links between punishment and society.
2) Utilize your “sociological imagination” to analyze our punishment regime to understand
the “causes” and “impacts” on individuals, communities, and society as a whole.
3) Gain experience in the production of a multi-media presentation
4) Communicate to a global audience
5) Create something of value beyond a simple assignment
As a team, you will spend the next five weeks meeting the following milestones, each worth a
small portion of you overall project grade. You will have at least one opportunity to work in your
teams in class to have access to Craig for questions during class-time. In addition to the materials
provided in class, you will need to find additional sources for different parts of your assignment.
A “C” level paper will find sources from the internet and newspapers. An “A” level assignment
might incorporate academic journal articles as your outside sources. As part of this assignment,
part of your job will be to “grade” your fellow team members, and I will take your comments
into consideration for your final grades.
All written portions must be type, double-spaced, 1-inch margins with 12-point times roman
font, just like your essay assignments.
The overall goal of this project is to create a youtube.com video, Facebook group, or Internet
blog in which you will identify three aspects of the punishment regime you think are most
troublesome, and provide some solutions for how to deal with this problem. You are essentially
making an argument. Each aspect of this assignment will help you construct your final product.
The following are the due dates for each part of the assignment. You may choose to hand in your
materials early for early feedback in an effort to aspire to be one of the best. I have no problem
with this. Please see me sooner rather than later if you have issues, questions, etc.
Materials must be submitted in person, in class, or in office hours. E-mailed submissions
will NOT be accepted.
To succeed with this assignment, you must address all of the following:
For parts one and two, you are handing in a joint essay/report/paper. There is no set page limit,
but they should be long enough to answer the main question prose in the kind of depth
representative of a 300-level course.
1) Describe the current state of the punishment regime in America (15/100 points).
a. Describe the “how” and “why” about our system of punishment in America. Your
reports should reflect all knowledge gained in the course thus far. You will also
support your essays with 3 additional sources per person and you paint a picture
about how we punish in America.
b. Due October 17th
2) Present a general critique of the current punishment regime in America (25/100 points).
a. You should start with the writing you’ve done in part one, and add the following:
b. Highlight what your team thinks are three key issues with the current punishment
regime in America.
c. Find 3 additional sources per person to bolster this aspect of your assignment.
d. Due October 24th
3) Apply two sociological concepts to aspects of the problems you have highlighted (30/100
points).
a. In a team-written essay, no longer than 3 pages you are to:
i. Identify which sociological concept you have picked for which problem
and why.
ii. For your first sociological concept, define the sociological concept
completely and provide two unrelated examples of this concept in “the
real world,” before tying the aspects of the definition of the concept to
your problem(s).
1. HINT: You must identify every relevant aspect of the concept and
explain how it applies to your social problem. What does this
concept say about society overall, and how does your problem
represent and example of this concept “in action?”
iii. For your second concept, repeat the above, except this time you are using
a sociological concept to help inform your solution. So, start by defining
this concept, and provided two unrelated examples of this concept in “the
real world,” before tying the aspects of the definition of the concept to
your proposed solution(s). What sociological idea(s) can you draw upon to
attempt to mitigate the damages caused by the problem(s) you have
identified. For example, if you were going to try and implement a
“restorative justice” approach, what is the theory behind it? What
sociological concepts (a number of which we’ve covered in class) have
gone in to inform the restorative justice perspective.
b. Craig can help you find additional sources.
c. Essays should be written and cited based on the “standard” essay format you have
been working with thus far.
d. Due November 2nd
4) How would you solve these problems (30/100 points)
a. Take everything you have learned, and create a coherent argument in which you
briefly summarize the punishment regime, describe the problems your team
examined, and the solutions you wish to propose.
b. See the choice below for your final project.
c. Due November 14th
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Your final project will take on one of the following three forms. No matter which of the
following projects you and your team select, you must meet the following general criteria
 You will gather into teams of 3 to 5 people, and together select the social problem you
wish to investigate
 While entertainment is a good thing in any creative project, it is not your primary goal.
Your work will be judged mainly on the capacity of your creative work to teach about
and encourage interest in the social problem you and your team choose to highlight. In
other words, the ability of your project to teach and inform is paramount! Your projects
will also show a solid understanding of some of the overall sociological concepts you’ve
been exposed to in class and in your readings.
 In fact, it is your duty as a citizen to make others aware of some of the most important
things you have learned.
:
1) YouTube Projects
You and your team will create instructional and entertaining films concerning your social
problem. Students propose topics, and work in teams of 2-5. Your final films should be brief, 5
to 6 minutes long (which is longer and shorter than you think!). Your film can range from a
narrated slide show to live action video, or even stop motion animation, if you’re feeling
adventurous! (I can tell you how to do stop motion animation if interested!)varying from voice
over with slides to live action dramas. The more people the more substantial the film should be
(in terms of effort, quality, production values, etc.)
How I will evaluate your videos:
The instructional component is most important. Entertaining is good, and decent production
values are worth something too. But by far most of our evaluation will be on the capacity of your
project to teach about and encourage interest in concepts, theories, and research in sociology.
The clips we showed in class got good grades. Other projects did also, but we should learn
something when done. All the better if we laugh along the way or are amazed by some other
attribute of your video. Make sure the connection to course material is clear.
2) A Blogger/Blogspot Blogs
Create a blog about an interesting and relevant topic. Write at least 5 high quality blog posts per
team member working on the blog.
Some Tips:
 Avoid repetition and monotony. Part of the challenge of creating a good blog is keeping
the posts related to a single theme, but not repetitive. A 5 person group means 25 blog
posts; I don’t want to see 25 examples of “stigma” from the news. Be creative and branch
out.
 Blogs are about more than just text content. They should be aesthetically pleasing and
visually interesting. Utilize images and choose an interesting backdrop.
3) Facebook groups
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Create a Facebook group about an interesting and relevant topic. Write at least 5 high quality
posts per team member person working on building the group and getting your message out.
Facebook groups would also include smaller posts and status updates; and obviously, getting
people to join the group.
The five “best” videos/blogs/groups (as decided by Craig) will be presented on the last day of
class, and each member of the teams selected will receive 5 extra points to their overall project
grade.
The Automatic “A” Option
1. Score a “B” or higher on each component of the assignment
2. Meet all assignment requirements
3. Get over 10,000 views on YouTube
1. Or group members on Facebook
2. Or unique page views to your blog
4. Break 50,000?
1. Each team member gets an automatic “A” for the quarter!
Failure to follow ANY or ALL directions can lead to a grade of “D” or “F”
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