Women Who Kill Men

California Courts, Gender, and the Press

Gordon Morris Bakken, Brenda Farrington (Autoren)

Buch | Softcover

296 Seiten

2013
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
978-0-8032-4544-0 (ISBN)

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Analyses eighteen sensational cases of women on trial for murder in this period to identify the intersections of media, law, and gender in California

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a revolutionary period in the lives of women, and the shifting perceptions of women and their role in society were equally apparent in the courtroom. Women Who Kill Men examines eighteen sensational cases of women on trial for murder from 1870 to 1958. The fascinating details of these murder trials, documented in court records and embellished newspaper coverage, mirrored the changing public image of women. Although murder was clearly outside the norm for standard female behavior, most women and their attorneys relied on gendered stereotypes and language to create their defense and sometimes to leverage their status in a patriarchal system. Those who could successfully dress and act the part of the victim were most often able to win the sympathies of the jury. Gender mattered. And though the norms shifted over time, the press, attorneys, and juries were all informed by contemporary gender stereotypes.

Gordon Morris Bakken is a professor of history at California State University, Fullerton. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Practicing Law in Frontier California (Nebraska 2006) and Mining Law of 1872: Past, Politics, and Prospects. Brenda Farrington is a lecturer in the history department at Chapman University. She has coauthored or coedited several books with Gordon Morris Bakken, including Law in the West and Encyclopedia of Women in the American West.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Feminine Side of Women on Trial

1. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Is the Sanest of Them All?: The Insanity Defense in Court and in the Press

2. Good Riddance: Justifiable Homicides of Enemy Deviants

3. Toward the New Woman: Feminine Wiles on Trial

4. The Haves and the Have Nots: Women on Trial during the Great Depression

5. War Women of the 1940s: Evolutionary Women in Revolutionary Times

6. Celebrity on Trial: Tinseltown Tarnished

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	1.5.2013
Reihe/Serie	Law in the American West
Zusatzinfo	11 photographs
Verlagsort	Lincoln
Sprache	englisch
Maße	140 x 216 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
	Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
	Recht / Steuern ► Rechtsgeschichte
	Recht / Steuern ► Strafrecht ► Kriminologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Journalistik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-10	0-8032-4544-0 / 0803245440
ISBN-13	978-0-8032-4544-0 / 9780803245440
Zustand	Neuware