Colonial Discourse and Gender in U.S. Criminal Courts

Caroline Braunmühl is a sociologist publishing in the fields of post-structuralist theory as well cultural, gender and post-colonial studies.

This book illuminates how "cultural evidence" ("evidence" regarding ethnicity) is negotiated by attorneys, witnesses, and defendants in criminal trials. Braunmühl argues that the controversy regarding the legitimacy of a "cultural defense" has tended to obscure its origin in colonialist and patriarchal discourses, and has been biased against minorities as well as all women from its inception.

Part I: Introduction Part II: Theoretical Perspective Part III: The Corpus of Cases Part IV: Ethnicizing Prosecutions and Defenses: `Culture¿ and `Gender¿ in Trial Parties¿ Argumentative Strategies and in the Debate About `the Cultural Defense¿ 1. Biases and Blindspots in the Debate 2. Cultural Profiling: The Patriarchal Other¿First Case Study 3. `Cultural Defense¿ I: The Oppressed Third World Woman¿Second Case Study 4. `Cultural Defense¿ II: The Patriarchal Other¿Third Case Study 5. Conclusion: Cultural Information or Gendered Colonial Discourse? Part V: Resistance/Instabilities: The Spectrum of Discursive Politics in Trials Involving `Cultural Evidence¿ and the Involuntary Subversion of Hegemonic Discourse 6. Contesting `Cultural Evidence¿: Adversarial Opposition or Mutual Collusion? 7. Witnesses and Hegemonic Consensus 8. Beyond Mere `Resistance¿: The Spectrum of Instabilities Fracturing Hegemonic Trial Discourse and What Difference They Make Part VI: Conclusion: Practical/Theoretical Implications.