Is the DCC Major for me?

The Deviance, Crime, and Culture (DCC) major examines how societies define, regulate, and resist deviance and crime. We explore how power and inequality define our ideas of justice and punishment. Rooted in anthropology — the study of humans and their systems — the program emphasizes the analysis of race, gender, class, and violence in cross-cultural contexts. Students learn to see “deviance” as a window into how people negotiate morality, belonging, and social order.

Through hands-on research experience students explore how socio-political forces shape systems such as policing, corrections, social services, law, governance, education and health. Majors learn valuable skills like research design, participant observation, interviewing, mapping, and conducting case studies—alongside training in writing, data analysis, and ethical inquiry. Core courses connect anthropological theory with real-world fieldwork and experiential learning, critically examining structures of control and resistance.

Majors work with experts on education, language and communication, religion and spiritualism, environmental justice, race and ethnicity, sex and gender, addiction, urban planning, violence and policing, with research sites in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, United States, and the Middle East. 

A wide range of interdisciplinary electives allows students to pursue their interests in criminology, psychology, sociology, corrections, history, political science, police science, LatinX Studies, Africana Studies, and law. The senior capstone seminar integrates research design, social theory, and ethnographic methods, culminating in an independent project based on fieldwork.

Graduates leave the program with a robust foundation in cultural analysis, research, and communication—skills essential for engaging issues of justice and inequality across sectors. Whether pursuing careers in law, law enforcement, public policy, social services, or advocacy, DCC students are equipped to navigate and transform complex multicultural environments like New York City and beyond.