Using Crime and Punishment in Class

The purpose of Crime and Punishment is to allow students to be confronted by the many factors that must be considered when sentencing decisions are made. Additionally, it is intended to provide the instructor with the opportunity to document the range of variation in sentence severity that students exhibit. So, there are six steps in the process of using this software to accomplish these goals.

1. Go to the Account Request web site and request a User Name and Password. Once you have a User Name and Password, this will give you access to the Instructor's web site.
2. Go to the Instructor's web site, log in with your Username and Password, and create a class for your students. When you create the class, you will design the experiment that your students will participate in, and make the decisions about which characteristics to vary and which to hold constant.
3. Ask your students to visit the Student's web site and download the simulation on the computer of their choice, and then run the simulation. Give your students a starting date and an ending date, a deadline by which they must complete their sentencing decisions.
4. When all of your students have completed the assignment, return to the Instructor's web site to see the class's results. These results will show the average prison sentence given for each of the six cases.
5. Now, for each stack, sort the sentence results from the longest prison sentence to the shortest prison sentence. This provides you with the range of sentences your studentsrendered for each case.
6. Take the results with you to class and show your students the results of the exercise. Prepare handouts, or display the results on overheads.

When you present the results of the exercise in class, you are holding a mirror up to them so that they can contemplate the results of their actions.

Your presentation should show your students the following information:

• The average prison sentence for each of the six cases.
• The highest and lowest sentences for each of the six cases.
• The rationales that go along with the highest and lowest sentences for each case. Here you can look at the words that are used to focus on the implicit theory of sentencing (retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, or rehabilitation) that seems to be at work.
• The standard deviation of the prison sentences for each of the six cases. This provides a sense of how much variation there is across all of your students.
• A breakdown of the average prison sentences for each characteristic that was varied. If you varied the race of the defendant, then show the average sentence for the white and for the African American defendants in each case.

Each of these points can serve as the starting point for a lively discussion of a number of issues in sentencing. For example, you can show your students