Description
Book SynopsisShows how two well-established, traditional criminal law defenses - the doctrines of provocation and self-defense - enable certain defendants to more easily justify their acts of violence than others. This work suggests three tentative legal reforms to address problems of bias and undue leniency.
Trade ReviewProvocative and persuasive. In this well-written and meticulously documented book, Cynthia Lee demonstrates how the law has defined & reasonableness in criminal law to favor men against women, straight men against gay men, and whites against blacks. Lees synthesis of many seemingly different examples, with thoughtful responses to the various objections that might be raised, is legal scholarship that can make a difference in our social practices. This is a serious and compelling book that should lead to reform. -- Frank H. Wu,author of Yellow: Race in America beyond Black and White
For Cynthia Lee, legal analysis is not a scholastic exercise in logical deduction or philosophical puzzle-solving, but a vivid form of social criticism. In relentlessly exposing the law's foundation in partisan social norms, she challenges the prevailing modes of legal scholarship as well as the prevailing understandings of voluntary manslaughter and self-defense doctrine. Murder and the Reasonable Man establishes Lee as one of the pre-eminent commentators on American criminal law. -- Dan Kahan,Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Smart, insightful, and important, this book proves that the criminal justice system does not treat all persons equallythat the reasonable man is a man, and that men get away with murder, while women pay with their lives. Must reading for students of the law, gender studies, and all those who care about equal justice. -- Susan Estrich,Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Southern California, and author of Real Rape, Getting Away with Murder: How Politics is Destroying the Criminal Justice System
Lee's book is a compelling and well-informed analysis of the issues raised when courts confront questions of reasonableness in high-profile, headline-grabbing cases. * Choice *
Lee challenges readers to question the concept of 'reasonableness' and how it has been applied. . . Scholars, students, professionals and the educated public will appreciate the careful, well-documented argument and pertinent examples. * Library Journal *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction I Crimes of Passion (The Doctrine of Provocation) 1 Female In?delity 2 Unreasonable Women, Gay Men, and Men of Color 3 Gay Panic 4 Culture and Crime II Crimes of Fear (The Doctrine of Self-Defense) 5 An Overview of the Doctrine of Self-Defense 6 Race and Self-Defense 7 Race and Police Use of Deadly Force III Rethinking Reasonableness 8 The Elusive Meaning of Reasonableness 9 Toward a Normative Conception of Reasonableness 10 The Act-Emotion Distinction Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
