A guy murders his spouse after she has admitted her infidelity; one other guy kills an brazenly 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 teen who had his arms in his wallet. whilst introduced earlier than the felony justice process, all 3 males argue that they need to be came across “not guilty”; the 1st use the safeguard of provocation, whereas the 3rd argues he used his gun in self-defense.
Drawing upon those and related situations, Cynthia Lee indicates how well-established, conventional felony legislations 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 group enter and supply higher flexibility in felony decision-making, the requirement additionally permits majority-culture defendants to depend upon dominant social norms, reminiscent of masculinity, heterosexuality, and race (i.e., racial stereotypes), to reinforce their claims of reasonableness. even as, Lee examines different situations that exhibit that the reasonableness requirement has a tendency to exclude the views of minorities, equivalent to heterosexual ladies, gays and lesbians, and folks of color.
Murder and the moderate Man not just exhibits how mostly invisible social norms and ideology effect the results of yes felony circumstances, yet is going additional, suggesting 3 tentative felony reforms to deal with difficulties of bias and undue leniency. eventually, Lee cautions that the genuine answer lies in a transformation in social attitudes.