Legal Mobilization and Analogical Legal Framing: Feminist Litigators’ Use of Race–Gender Analogies

We investigate how cause lawyers articulate their demands in court. We do so by examining feminist legal briefs submitted in US Supreme Court cases from 1970 to the present, specifically focusing on the use of race–gender analogical legal framing. We explore the frequency and trends in the use of such arguments as well as the forms these arguments take, including how race–gender analogies parallel frame bridging and transformation. Additionally, we also investigate why activists choose to deploy race–gender analogies in their legal framing and discern that different political, legal, and social contexts can produce different uses of the race–gender analogy.     

Contextualizing the Different Voice: Women,Occupational Goals,and Legal Education*

Essentialist views reporting the existence of distinct gender differences have received much criticism. Despite these critiques, there is little empirical research on the limitations of these approaches in institutions such as law schools. While studies of legal education have been informed by gender difference theory, few have sought to contextualize difference. This study examines gender difference among students attending Harvard Law School. Using survey and interview data, this study demonstrates that difference is mediated by such variables as occupational goals, social class, and race. Implications of differences among women are discussed as they relate to reforms in legal education.     

Representation through Participation: A Multilevel Analysis of Jury Deliberations

Fully participatory jury deliberations figure prominently in the idealized view of the American jury system, where balanced participation among diverse jurors leads to more accurate fact‐finding and instills public confidence in the legal system. However, research more than 50 years ago indicated that jury‐room interactions are shaped by social status, with upper‐class men participating more than their lower‐class and female counterparts. The effects of social status on juror participation have been examined only sporadically since then, and rarely with actual jurors. We utilize data from 2,189 criminal jurors serving on 302 juries in four jurisdictions to consider whether—and in what conditions—participation in jury deliberations differs across social groups. Our results indicate the continuing importance of social status in structuring jury‐room interactions, but also reveal some surprising patterns with respect to race and gender that depart from earlier research. We also find that contextual factors including location, case characteristics, and faction size shape the relationship between social status and participation. We conclude with a critical discussion of our results and urge other researchers to take into account contextual factors when examining how individual juror characteristics shape what happens inside the jury room.     

Law, Society, Identity, and the Making of the Jim Crow South: Travel and Segregation on Tennessee Railroads, 1875-1905

This article reexamines the well-known debate over the origins of de jure segregation in the American South, which began in 1955 with the publication of C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Arguing that the debate over Woodward's thesis implicates familar but outmoded ways of looking at sociolegal change and Southern society, the article proposes a reorientation of this debate using theoretical perspecttves taken from recent work by legal historians, critical race theorsts, and historians of race, class, and gender. This article examines the advent of railroad segregation in Tennessee (the state that enacted the nation's first railroad segregation statute) in order to sketch out these themes, arguing that de jure segregation was brought about by a dialectic between legal, social, and identity'based phenomena. This dialectic did not die out with the coming of de jure segregation; rather it continued into the modem era.     

Integrating Critical Race Theory and Postmodernism Implications of Race, Class, and Gender

This paper begins with an overview of criticalrace theory tenets, which in turn will befollowed by an overview of postmodernism. These bodies of knowledge consist of an arrayof ideologies; but for the purpose of thisarticle only the fundamentals of each will bediscussed. Thereafter, an integration ofthese two contemporary areas of thought willdemonstrate the constructive linkage ofcritical race theory and postmodern theory. Theintegrations that follow will emphasize how acollaboration of critical race theory tenetsand postmodern thought can contribute to asuccessful, and more importantly improved,analysis of the social constructions of race,class, and gender. In addition, theintersectional analysis presented willdemonstrate a more informative and betterunderstanding of the subtleties of blatant andmore hidden forms of race, class, and gender.     

From Consent to Responsibility, from Pity to Respect: Subtexts in Cases of Sexual Violence Involving Girls and Women with Developmental Disabilities

How might feminist law reform serve all women? The author explores this question within the context of sexual violence involving girls and women with developmental disabilities. She presents the difference impasse as a theoretical tool for understanding how women are positioned in law differently and unequally in relation to each other. She explores how, within the consent framework of a rape trail, competing social narratives or subtexts about race, class, gender, and disability circulate in the courtroom. She also explores the issue of pity in rape traiIs and argues that focusing on interlocking systems of domination and on our complicity in maintaining categories of women in law and law reform is a useful approach for feminist law reformers.     

Conceptions of Agency in Social Movement Scholarship: Mack on African American Civil Rights Lawyers

This essay examines the theory of individual agency that propels the central thesis in Kenneth Mack's Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer (2012)—namely, that an important yet understudied means by which African American civil rights lawyers changed conceptions of race through their work was through their very performance of the professional role of lawyer. Mack shows that this performance was inevitably fraught with tension and contradiction because African American lawyers were called upon to act both as exemplary representatives of their race and as performers of a professional role that traditionally had been reserved for whites only. Mack focuses especially on the tensions of this role in courtrooms, where African American lawyers were necessarily called upon to act as the equals of white judges, opposing counsel, and witnesses. Mack's thesis, focused on the contradictions and tensions embodied in the performance of a racially loaded identity, reflects the influence of postmodern identity performance theory as articulated by Judith Butler and others. Mack and others belong to a new generation of civil rights history scholars who are asking new questions about contested identities related to race, gender, sexuality, and class. This essay offers an evaluation of this new direction for civil rights scholarship, focusing especially on its implicit normative orientation and what it contributes to the decade‐old debate over how to conceive of agency in social movement scholarship.     

Race and Determinations of Discrimination: Vigilance,Cynicism, Skepticism,and Attitudes about Legal Mobilization in Employment Civil Rights

What factors affect whether ordinary citizens believe that workplace decisions involving African‐American employees rise to the level of discrimination? When do observers believe targets of possible race discrimination should consider mobilizing the law? We use a factorial design vignette study administered to a nationally representative sample of 2,087 ordinary people to address these questions. The “vigilance hypothesis” predicts that minorities will be more likely to perceive discrimination than whites. Our analysis partially confirms this: African Americans perceive anti‐Black discrimination at higher rates than do whites and Latinos, while Latinos do not show a significant difference from whites. Where respondents believe discrimination occurred, we analyze what influences whether respondents might recommend legal mobilization. The “cynicism hypothesis” suggests that people of color may be less likely to favor using law. We find, however, that African‐American and Latino respondents express more confidence in civil litigation, compared to whites. Further, African Americans express the strongest support for legal mobilization (recommending that a “friend” contact an attorney), while whites and Latinos do not differ in mobilization recommendations.     

从民族性格看美国的法制创新

在世界历史上，美国民族曾创造了法制的辉煌，这种成就与美国的民族性格有着千丝万缕的联系。美国是由众多种族和国籍的移民构成的民族大家庭，经过这一“民族大熔炉“的反复冶炼，最后凝聚成美利坚民族所共有的性格特征——崇尚独立自主，勇于开拓进取，保持乐观自信和注重求实创新。正由于美国民族具有取得成功的信心、坚忍不拔的毅力和奋发图强的精神，才书写了美国社会经济繁荣、法制创新的辉煌历史。     

Correlates of Mortality in a U.S. Cohort of Youth, 1980–98: Implications for Social Justice

This paper reports results of a study based on a nationally representative sample of U.S. youth (N = 11,549) that asked two questions: (1) How does family structure affect the likelihood of adolescent death beyond that of race/ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status, personal behavior, and other structural factors and (2) under what conditions might appeals for social justice be warranted for relative mortality statuses and for absolute gains in mortality? The study found that marital instability increases the likelihood of dying when controlling for a variety of other factors including class, race/ethnicity, sex, and unemployment rate in area of residence. The author argues that this finding lends support to social justice arguments to redistribute resources in such a way as to ensure the likelihood of absolute gains in mortality. The study also found, however, that race/ethnicity/sex also accounted for the likelihood of dying independently of family structure when controlling for socioeconomic and other factors. The author argues that this finding lends support to social justice arguments to redistribute resources on the basis of relative mortality statuses.     

Gendered Paths to Legal Citizenship: The Case of Latin‐American Immigrants in Phoenix,Arizona

In this paper we seek to contribute to a greater understanding of legal citizenship by exploring the gendered experiences of Latin‐American‐origin immigrants in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area as they go through the legalization process. To explore this gendered angle we rely on in‐depth interviews conducted from 1998 through 2008 with women and men from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico. The data reveal that although immigration policies and procedures are presumably gender neutral, they are in fact inflected with gendered meanings and enacted in gendered social structures. Gender ideologies permeate the processes to differentially affect the legalization, permanent legal residence, and citizenship processes of immigrant women and men. This article points to key gender inequalities in immigration law.     

The Concept of Law Revised—Directives and Norms in the Perspectives of a New Legal Realism

Legal theory usually distinguishes only two kinds of legal realism: the American and the Scandinavian. Another school of this theoretical perspective is German legal realism, which refers to scholars like Ihering, Weber, and Schelsky. According to German legal realism, the author outlines what legal theory can do to persuade modern jurisprudence to face the social reality of law, conceived as institutionalized normative communication. The latter always occurs with reference to already valid and effectively operative legal norms which are used in an established, normatively binding legal practice in a given regional society.     

Connecting Critical Race Theory with Second Generation Legal Consciousness Work in Obasogie's Blinded by Sight

Sociologist and legal scholar Osagie Obasogie's study of how blind people “see” race reveals the usually invisible, taken‐for‐granted mechanisms that reproduce racism. In Blinded by Sight, he distinguishes racial consciousness from legal consciousness, though he notes their common emphases on studying how cumulative social practices and interactions produce commonsense understandings. I argue that there is much to be gained from connecting these two fields, one emanating primarily out of critical race theory and the other out of law and society scholarship. Legal consciousness offers an important avenue for bridging macro studies of race making with micro studies such as Obasogie's, which focus on individuals’ experiences and practices of constructing race and learning racism.     

THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF DISCRIMINATION IN THE JUVENILE JUSTICE PROCESS: THE IMPACT OF ADMINISTRATIVE FACTORS AND SCREENING DECISIONS ON JUVENILE COURT DISPOSITIONS

Research on race, sex, and social class discrimination in the juvenile justice process has yielded mixed results. These conflicting findings have been attributed to the use of diverse research strategies and various methodological shortcomings. There are, however, two potentially important issues that have not been previously addressed: the need to examine the juvenile justice system as a process, rather than as a series of separate and unrelated decision points, and the failure to control for the impact of administrative factors such as pretrial detention. The purpose of the research reported here is to examine the impact of race, sex, and social class on juvenile court dispositions while controlling for pretrial detention and appropriate legal factors. The analytical strategy employed permits an examination of the impact of these factors over three stages of the juvenile justice process: referral, adjudication, and disposition.
Findings indicate that while legal factors and pretrial detention decline in importance as predictors of disposition as one moves from an examination of all referred to adjudicated youth, race and social class become more important. These results are discussed in terms of their methodological significance and their implications for the conceptualization of discrimination in the juvenile justice process.     

Untangling race and class effects on juvenile arrests

This study employed a synthesis of conflict and labeling theory to reexamine the often observed links between race, social class, and arrest. Using longitudinal data on a representative sample of U.S. teens, random effects negative binomial regressions detected direct and indirect effects of race and class on arrest. In support of main effects hypotheses, racial minority status and low SES increased arrests, controlling for demographic and legal items. Consistent with research on “out of place” effects for minority youth in high SES contexts, and counter to expectations, interactions showed that racial minority status increased arrest risk for high SES youth significantly more than it did for low SES youth. Somewhat reminiscent of research on the “Latino paradox,” the effect of minority status on arrest at low-income levels did not exert the same interactive effect for Hispanics as it did for Blacks. Implications for theory, policy, and future research are discussed.     

The independent and joint effects of race,crime, and social location on the dispositional decisions of juvenile girls

The nexus of race, gender, and social location remain a habitual line of inquiry for many criminologists. However, quantitative studies of intersectionality are rare and especially rare as it relates to those studying serious and violent girls sentenced in the juvenile court. Particularly, this study seeks to explore how racialized gender expectations and forms of double/multiplicative jeopardy influence the back-end outcomes for serious and violent girls. Findings reveal the black girls, compared to their white counterparts, were sentenced with less leniency, and instead, punished in a more punitive matter. Importantly, these findings vary across the gamut of legal and extralegal variables. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed, as well as the limitations of the present study.     

Intersectional Criminology: Interrogating Identity and Power in Criminological Research and Theory

Intersectional criminology is a theoretical approach that necessitates a critical reflection on the impact of interconnected identities and statuses of individuals and groups in relation to their experiences with crime, the social control of crime, and any crime-related issues. This approach is grounded in intersectionality, a concept developed from the tenets of women of color feminist theory and activism. To demonstrate how intersectionality is useful in criminology, this article reviews a sampling of feminist and critical research conducted on Black girls’ and women’s experiences with crime, victimization, and criminal legal system processes. This research demonstrates the interlaced social impacts of race, gender, femininity/masculinity ideals, sexuality, and socioeconomic class. This article also provides a basis for widely deploying an intersectional approach throughout the field of criminology across all social identities and statuses.     

Driving across campus: Assessing the impact of drivers' race and gender on police traffic enforcement actions

This study examined the effect of drivers' race and gender on officers' decision to search a driver/vehicle and invoke a legal sanction, controlling for legal and extralegal factors. Logistic regression analyses of 10,210 traffic stops on a university campus indicated that drivers' race and gender had a significant effect on officers' decision to search a driver/vehicle and invoke a legal sanction. Black male drivers were more likely than White drivers to be searched, but were less likely to receive a legal sanction. Unexpectedly, the results showed that Asian drivers were less likely to be searched, but more likely to receive legal sanctions than White drivers. Findings, however, indicated that legal and extralegal factors (i.e., types of traffic violation, time, officer type) were found to have significant effects on officers' decisions during traffic stops.     

EXPLAINING THE GENDER GAP IN CRIME: THE ROLE OF HEART RATE

Although it is well established that males engage in more crime compared with females, little is known about what accounts for the gender gap. Few studies have been aimed at empirically examining mediators of the gender–crime relationship in a longitudinal context. In this study, we test the hypothesis that a low resting heart rate partly mediates the relationship between gender and crime. In a sample of 894 participants, the resting heart rate at 11 years of age was examined alongside self‐reported and official conviction records for overall criminal offending, violence, serious violence, and drug‐related crime at 23 years of age. A low resting heart rate partially mediated the relationship between gender and all types of adult criminal offending, including violent and nonviolent crime. The mediation effects were significant after controlling for body mass index, race, social adversity, and activity level. Resting heart rate accounted for 5.4 percent to 17.1 percent of the gender difference in crime. This study is the first to produce results documenting that lower heart rates in males partly explain their higher levels of offending. Our findings complement traditional theoretical accounts of the gender gap and have implications for the advancement of integrative criminological theory.