It is different for every student. Do not assume you can not do the assignment just because you may not come from a typical family. We can always work out any student's idiosyncratic situation, believe me. Again, this is one of my favorite courses. The Sociology of Crime and Criminal Law is another favorite of mine.
Crime is such a fascinating topic to approach from a sociological point of view.
It does not fulfill a general education requirement. In the course we will look at some background and history of criminology and criminologists, the methods and results of gathering statistics in the area, theory, and types of crimes. As I tell students in the course and on the syllabus, theory is the heart of the course. You will find that you have already studied some of the theoretical explanations we will cover, such as anomie. There is a paper required.