Murder and the Reasonable Man: Passion and Fear in the - download pdf or read online

A guy murders his spouse after she has admitted her infidelity; one other guy kills an overtly homosexual teammate after receiving a therapeutic massage; a 3rd guy, white, is going for a jog in a “bad” local, wearing a pistol, and shoots an African American youngster who had his fingers in his wallet. while introduced prior to the felony justice approach, all 3 males argue that they need to be came upon “not guilty”; the 1st use the security of provocation, whereas the 3rd argues he used his gun in self-defense.

Drawing upon those and comparable circumstances, Cynthia Lee exhibits how well-established, conventional legal legislation defenses—the doctrines of provocation and self-defense—enable majority-culture defendants to justify their acts of violence. whereas the reasonableness requirement, inherent in either defenses, is designed to permit neighborhood enter and supply larger flexibility in felony decision-making, the requirement additionally permits majority-culture defendants to depend on dominant social norms, akin to masculinity, heterosexuality, and race (i.e., racial stereotypes), to strengthen their claims of reasonableness. while, Lee examines different instances that reveal that the reasonableness requirement has a tendency to exclude the views of minorities, reminiscent of heterosexual girls, gays and lesbians, and people of color.

Murder and the moderate Man not just indicates how principally invisible social norms and ideology effect the results of sure felony circumstances, yet is going extra, suggesting 3 tentative criminal reforms to handle difficulties of bias and undue leniency. finally, Lee cautions that the real resolution lies in a transformation in social attitudes.