Saundra Davis Westervelt's Books

Shifting the Blame

How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense

By: Saundra Davis Westervelt

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Shifting the Blame

How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense

By: Saundra Davis Westervelt

More than just a study of legal history, Shifting the Blame looks at the "abuse excuse" defense as an indicator of broad social change in cultural understandings of victimization, responsibility, and womanhood. The introduction of victimization as an exculpatory condition within the context of a criminal defense tells the story of a society that has accepted victimization as a new way of explaining and excusing misbehavior. Through case law analysis, the book documents the initial development of the strategy in three different types of cases in the 1970s - "rotten social background", brainwashing, and battered women's self-defense cases. Since its initial acceptance in battered women's cases in the early 1980s, the use of the strategy has expanded to a variety of offenders in different types of relationships arguing different defenses. In lively, readable prose, Westervelt examines each form of expansion, revealing that while the expansion of the strategy has been fairly extensive, it has also been limited in some important ways. Her research shows readers that only certain types of "victims," particularly victims of physical abuse, have successfully used this defense. Shifting the Blame exposes the ways in which the acceptance of this new defense strategy illuminates a cultural shift in understandings of individual responsibility and shows how the law plays a role in defining who can be an acceptable victim. Saundra D. Westervelt is an assistant professor in the Sociology Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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Page Count

212

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813525845

ISBN 13

9780813525846

Life after Death Row

Exonerees' Search for Community and Identity

By: Saundra D. Westervelt,Kimberly J. Cook

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Life after Death Row

Exonerees' Search for Community and Identity

By: Saundra D. Westervelt,Kimberly J. Cook

Life after Death Row examines the post-incarceration struggles of individuals who have been wrongly convicted of capital crimes, sentenced to death, and subsequently exonerated. Saundra D. Westervelt and Kimberly J. Cook present eighteen exonerees’ stories, focusing on three central areas: the invisibility of the innocent after release, the complicity of the justice system in that invisibility, and personal trauma management. Contrary to popular belief, exonerees are not automatically compensated by the state or provided adequate assistance in the transition to post-prison life. With no time and little support, many struggle to find homes, financial security, and community. They have limited or obsolete employment skills and difficulty managing such daily tasks as grocery shopping or banking. They struggle to regain independence, self-sufficiency, and identity. Drawing upon research on trauma, recovery, coping, and stigma, the authors weave a nuanced fabric of grief, loss, resilience, hope, and meaning to provide the richest account to date of the struggles faced by people striving to reclaim their lives after years of wrongful incarceration.

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Page Count

301

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813553393

ISBN 13

9780813553399

Shifting the Blame

How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense

By: Saundra Davis Westervelt

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Shifting the Blame

How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense

By: Saundra Davis Westervelt

Average ratings

N/A

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

212

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813525845

ISBN 13

9780813525846

Life After Death Row

Exonerees' Search for Community and Identity

By: Saundra Davis Westervelt,Kimberly J. Cook

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Life After Death Row

Exonerees' Search for Community and Identity

By: Saundra Davis Westervelt,Kimberly J. Cook

Life after Death Row examines the post-incarceration struggles of individuals who have been wrongly convicted of capital crimes, sentenced to death, and subsequently exonerated. Drawing upon research on trauma, recovery, coping, and stigma, the authors weave a nuanced fabric of grief, loss, resilience, hope, despair, and meaning to provide the richest account to date of the struggles faced by people striving to reclaim their lives in contemporary American society after years of wrongful incarceration.

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Age

Page Count

280

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813553830

ISBN 13

9780813553832

Book's by Saundra Davis Westervelt

Shifting the Blame

Shifting the Blame

Life after Death Row

Life after Death Row

Shifting the Blame

Shifting the Blame

Life After Death Row

Life After Death Row

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