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The Death Penalty and Sex Murder in Canadian History / Carolyn Strange.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal HistoryPublisher: Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2020]Copyright date: 2020Description: 1 online resource (384 p.) : 48 b&w illustrationsContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781487506902
  • 9781487538101
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 364.660971 23
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. The Politics of the Death Penalty and the Problem of Sex Murder -- 2. Sex Fiends and the Death Penalty at the Turn of Canada’s Century -- 3. Contesting Convictions and Questioning Culpability between the Wars -- 4. Sexual Psychopathy and Penal Severity in the Post-War Era -- 5. Sexual Psychopathy, Insanity, and the Death Penalty under Scrutiny in the 1950s -- 6. Sex Murder in the Sixties and the Demise of the Death Penalty -- Epilogue: The Problem of Sex Murder in the Shadow of Abolition -- Reflection on Sources and Methods -- Notes -- Index -- Publications of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
Summary: From Confederation to the partial abolition of the death penalty a century later, defendants convicted of sexually motivated killings and sexually violent homicides in Canada were more likely than any other condemned criminals to be executed for their crimes. Despite the emergence of psychiatric expertise in criminal trials, moral disgust and anger proved more potent in courtrooms, the public mind, and the hearts of the bureaucrats and politicians responsible for determining the outcome of capital cases. Wherever death has been set as the ultimate criminal penalty, the poor, minority groups, and stigmatized peoples have been more likely to be accused, convicted, and executed. Although the vast majority of convicted sex killers were white, Canada’s racist notions of "the Indian mind" meant that Indigenous defendants faced the presumption of guilt. Black defendants were also subjected to discriminatory treatment, including near lynchings. In debates about capital punishment, abolitionists expressed concern that prejudices and poverty created the prospect of wrongful convictions. Unique in the ways it reveals the emotional drivers of capital punishment in delivering inequitable outcomes, The Death Penalty and Sex Murder in Canadian History provides a thorough overview of sex murder and the death penalty in Canada. It serves as an essential history and a richly documented cautionary tale for the present.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781487538101

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. The Politics of the Death Penalty and the Problem of Sex Murder -- 2. Sex Fiends and the Death Penalty at the Turn of Canada’s Century -- 3. Contesting Convictions and Questioning Culpability between the Wars -- 4. Sexual Psychopathy and Penal Severity in the Post-War Era -- 5. Sexual Psychopathy, Insanity, and the Death Penalty under Scrutiny in the 1950s -- 6. Sex Murder in the Sixties and the Demise of the Death Penalty -- Epilogue: The Problem of Sex Murder in the Shadow of Abolition -- Reflection on Sources and Methods -- Notes -- Index -- Publications of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

From Confederation to the partial abolition of the death penalty a century later, defendants convicted of sexually motivated killings and sexually violent homicides in Canada were more likely than any other condemned criminals to be executed for their crimes. Despite the emergence of psychiatric expertise in criminal trials, moral disgust and anger proved more potent in courtrooms, the public mind, and the hearts of the bureaucrats and politicians responsible for determining the outcome of capital cases. Wherever death has been set as the ultimate criminal penalty, the poor, minority groups, and stigmatized peoples have been more likely to be accused, convicted, and executed. Although the vast majority of convicted sex killers were white, Canada’s racist notions of "the Indian mind" meant that Indigenous defendants faced the presumption of guilt. Black defendants were also subjected to discriminatory treatment, including near lynchings. In debates about capital punishment, abolitionists expressed concern that prejudices and poverty created the prospect of wrongful convictions. Unique in the ways it reveals the emotional drivers of capital punishment in delivering inequitable outcomes, The Death Penalty and Sex Murder in Canadian History provides a thorough overview of sex murder and the death penalty in Canada. It serves as an essential history and a richly documented cautionary tale for the present.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 19. Oct 2024)