Consistently Revealing the Inconsistencies: The Construction of Fear in the Criminal Law

Abstract

For purposes of this essay, I will focus upon my attempts to have Criminal Law students problematize the criminal law reasonable person. For illustrative purposes, I will focus upon two areas in the criminal law, rape and self-defense, in which the inconsistency, if not the irrationality, of the use of the reasonable person reveals the undercurrents of negative associations of both gender and racial identity constructs.