«Rights and Justice

Godoy Study Questions

As you look at all three of the readings on this topic, you should be able to identify 3 competing approaches to the problem - the one expressed in the Washington Post article and criticized by Professor Speed; the one described as the "common-sense consensus" by Snodgrass Godoy, and the one defended by the latter.

1. What are these three approaches?
2. Which crimes do people say are the ones that justify lynching, and which are the crimes most frequently punished with a lynching?
3. Are lynchings "pre-modern" phenomena?
4. What is the underlying purpose/function of lynching?
5. What are the implications for democracy?
6. What would be the problem with simply extending the reach of the formal legal system to these communities, without at the same time giving these communities more participation in the state, and without having the state also extend the reach of more social justice-oriented programs at the same time?