From Slave Abuse to Hate Crime: The Criminalization of Racial Violence in American History

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.

Author: Ely Aaronson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 10/06/2014
Pages: 220
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781107026896

About the Author
Aaronson, Ely: - Ely Aaronson is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Haifa, Israel.