From Slave Abuse to Hate Crime: The Criminalization of Racial Violence in American History (Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society) - Softcover

Aaronson, Ely

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1107608546 ISBN 13: 9781107608542

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2019

Synopsis

This book explores the complex ways in which political debates and legal reforms regarding the criminalization of racial violence have shaped the development of American racial history. Spanning previous campaigns for criminalizing slave abuse, lynching, and Klan violence and contemporary debates about the legal response to hate crimes, this book reveals both continuity and change in terms of the political forces underpinning the enactment of new laws regarding racial violence in different periods and of the social and institutional problems that hinder the effective enforcement of these laws. A thought-provoking analysis of how criminal law reflects and constructs social norms, this book offers a new historical and theoretical perspective for analyzing the limits of current attempts to use criminal legislation as a weapon against racism.

About this title

About the Author

Ely Aaronson is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Haifa, Israel.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107608546
• ISBN 13: 9781107608542
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220