This course will explore systems of inequality and their relationship to ‘crime,’ violence and the criminal justice system. Students will gain a firm understanding of race, class, gender, and sexuality as categories of analysis and as structures, which influence the life course. How is the body taken up in the mobilization of power? How is the body “a text” (to use Stuart Hall’s terms) where race, class, gender and sexuality are ‘read’ on the body? How are systems of inequality maintained and reproduced by criminal justice institutions and practices? What is the relationship between violence (both by individuals and the State) and white supremacy, gendered relations of ruling, class inequality and heteronormativity? The course is primarily organized around systems of inequality and social institutions (Families, the Labor Market, Education, Media). We will then ground that discussion in crime and criminal justice practices through examples, case studies, and lecture. Students will gain familiarity with intersectionality, as a method of analysis, as it has been taken up to answer criminological questions. Our exploration of these questions will be situated in historical context.