License to Harass (eBook)

Law, Hierarchy, and Offensive Public Speech

Laura Beth Nielsen (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2009
248 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-2629-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Laura Beth Nielsen is currently Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation and will be Assistant Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University beginning in the fall of 2006. She is the editor, with Robert L. Nelson, of Handbook of Employment Discrimination Research: Rights and Realities.

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Offensive street speech--racist and sexist remarks that can make its targets feel both psychologically and physically threatened--is surprisingly common in our society. Many argue that this speech is so detestable that it should be banned under law. But is this an area covered by the First Amendment right to free speech? Or should it be banned? In this elegantly written book, Laura Beth Nielsen pursues the answers by probing the legal consciousness of ordinary citizens. Using a combination of field observations and in-depth, semistructured interviews, she surveys one hundred men and women, some of whom are routine targets of offensive speech, about how such speech affects their lives. Drawing on these interviews as well as an interdisciplinary body of scholarship, Nielsen argues that racist and sexist speech creates, reproduces, and reinforces existing systems of hierarchy in public places. The law works to normalize and justify offensive public interactions, she concludes, offering, in essence, a "e;license to harass."e; Nielsen relates the results of her interviews to statistical surveys that measure the impact of offensive speech on the public. Rather than arguing whether law is the appropriate remedy for offensive speech, she allows that the benefits to democracy, to community, and to society of allowing such speech may very well outweigh the burdens imposed. Nonetheless, these burdens, and the stories of the people who bear them, should not remain invisible and outside the debate.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.1.2009
• Reihe/Serie: The Cultural Lives of Law
• Reihe/Serie: The Cultural Lives of Law
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Arbeits- / Sozialrecht ► Arbeitsrecht
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Öffentliches Recht
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: African Americans • Aggression • Aggressive panhandling • Alternatives • Ambiguity (law) • Ambivalence • americans • Anti-Discrimination Law • attempt • begging • black people • Calculation • Censorship • Clothing • Controversy • Crime • Critical Legal Studies • critical race theory • Cross burning • Cynicism (contemporary) • date rape • Determination • distrust • Domestic violence • EDELMAN • Epithet • Equal Opportunity • Everyday life • Explanation • Feminist Movement • Fighting Words • freedom of speech • Gender Inequality • Gender Role • harassment • Hate speech • Homelessness • Ideology • Informant • Institution • intimidation • invisibility • Journal of Social Issues • Judicial opinion • Judiciary • Jurisprudence • Justifiable homicide • laborer • lawyer • legal consciousness • Legal Doctrine • Legal recourse • Legal remedy • Lesbian • Likert Scale • Loitering • Norm (social) • Oppression • Political Correctness • political opportunity • Pornography • presumption • Project Manager • Public comment • Public Space • Public speaking • Racism • R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul • Respondent • result • security guard • Sexism • Sexual assault • sexual harassment • sexual objectification • Sexual orientation • Sexual Violence • Shame • Skirt • Social Group • social issue • Social Movement • Social Status • Social Theory • Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues • Socioeconomic Status • Sociology • Sociology of Law • Speech code • state actor • Statute • Street Harassment • suburb • Suggestion • Suspect • Tax • The Concept of Law • Violence • vulnerability • white people
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-2629-2 / 1400826292
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-2629-2 / 9781400826292