Race and the Criminal Law Curriculum

Abstract

This chapter briefly sketches a few places in the substantive criminal law curriculum where law professors can include discussion of race to enrich students’ understanding of the law. These include racially based jury nullification, the void-for-vagueness doctrine, hate crimes and the actus reus requirement, voluntary manslaughter and the defense of provocation, involuntary manslaughter, rape, the doctrine of self-defense, the “Black rage” defense, and the “cultural defense.” The chapter also discusses the Guerilla Guides to Law Teaching project, which suggests that criminal law professors introduce the concept of abolition of the carceral state as a framework through which students can “question the core assumptions about the relationship between incarceration, retribution, and utilitarianism, and take seriously the scale of human devastation wrought by incarceration.” While it is critically important to acknowledge the role of race in the criminal justice system and highlight the various ways racial bias can influence the outcomes in criminal cases, it is not necessary to include discussions of race in all of the different ways listed in this chapter. It is important to start by teaching in a traditional fashion and establishing one’s authority in the classroom before incorporating discussions about race into the classroom.