A01=Laura Beth Nielsen
African Americans
Aggressive panhandling
Alternatives
Ambiguity (law)
Americans
Anti-discrimination law
Attempt
Author_Laura Beth Nielsen
Begging
Black people
Calculation
Category=JPVH
Category=LAB
Category=LND
Censorship
Clothing
Crime
Critical race theory
Cross burning
Cynicism (contemporary)
Determination
Distrust
Domestic violence
Epithet
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Equal opportunity
Everyday life
Explanation
Fighting words
Freedom of speech
Gender inequality
Gender role
Harassment
Hate speech
Homelessness
Ideology
Informant
Institution
Journal of Social Issues
Judiciary
Jurisprudence
Justifiable homicide
Legal consciousness
Legal doctrine
Legal recourse
Legal remedy
Lesbian
Loitering
Norm (social)
Oppression
Political opportunity
Pornography
Presumption
Project manager
Public space
Public speaking
R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul
Racism
Respondent
Sexism
Sexual harassment
Sexual orientation
Social issue
Social status
Social theory
Sociology
Speech code
State actor
Statute
Street harassment
Suggestion
Tax
The Concept of Law
Violence
White people
Product details
- ISBN 9780691126104
- Weight: 369g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 13 Mar 2006
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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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 "license to harass." 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.
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".
