Social Science - Film

General Education Capstone Course

Event/Experience Details and Guideline Form

Gen. Ed. Category Event should be listed under:   Social Sciences

SCC Competency addressed by event:   Draw on the social sciences to evaluate the diversity and complexity of contemporary local and global issues to provide a better understanding of the student’s relationship to those social issues.

Event experience Title:   Viewing the Crime Genre Film with a Gen Ed Improved Lens

Anticipated Learning Outcome.  The successful student upon completion of this project will better be able to articulate an evaluation of the complexity of the social issues surrounding common criminal justice issues, local and global. Understanding this, the student will better understand the diversities and complexities of the cultural and social world around them reaching a more informed sense of his/her self and others.

Guidelines for accomplishment of event (assumes completion by a non-major)

1) Pick and watch a film you might expect a large general audience to see at your local theatre, the topic of which involves a common criminal justice related theme.  Examples might include:  Double Jeopardy, The Shaw Shank Redemption, The Fugitive, The Grifters, Drug Store Cowboy, Cool Hand Luke, or Silence of the Lambs.

2) Note while watching the film how you might have reacted, viewed the film prior to understandings of the world around you gained while taking such courses as sociology, psychology, history, political science, economics, geography and/or criminal justice.

3) Write a journal entry which focuses upon, describes and explains how your understanding of the criminal justice issue upon which the film centered has expanded with expansion of your view of society and the world around you as you have read and studied social science courses.  Sample questions you might want to consider in completing this assignment: How does social structure contribute to the definition of the crime depicted in the movie? If you were a policy maker, what changes in our culture might you recommend to lessen the likelihood of such a crime occurring? What agents of socialization supported the crime occurrence in the movie? How does the environment of the characters within the movie influence your view of how the antagonists within the film should be treated?

Event Contact:  Visit any mainstream video store.

SCC Event Creator:  Prof. D. Van Mierlo

Estimated Time for full completion:  four hours