Sin No More

by Dombrink, John

• ISBN13: 9780814719893
• ISBN10: 0814719899
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-11-01
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

Read the Authors' Op-Ed on the Seattle Post-IntelligencerSin No Moreoffers a vivid examination of some of the most morally and politically disputed issues of our time: abortion, gay rights, assisted suicide, stem cell research, and legalized gambling. These are moral values issues, all of which are hotly, sometimes violently, contested in America. The authors cover these issues in depth, looking at the nature of efforts to initiate reforms, to define constituencies, to mobilize resources, to frame debates, and to shape public opinion -- all in an effort to achieve social change, create, or re-write legislation. Of the issues under scrutiny only legalized gambling has managed to achieve widespread acceptance despite moral qualms from some.Sin No Moreseeks to show what these laws and attitudes tell us about Americans' approach to law and morality, and about our changing conceptions of sin, crime and illegality. Running through each chapter is a central tension: that American attitudes and laws toward these victimless crimes are going through a process of normalization. Despite conservative rhetoric the authors argue that the tide is turning on each of these issues, with all moving toward acceptance, or decriminalization, in society. Each issue is at a different point in terms of this acceptance, and each has traveled different roads to achieve their current status.

Author Biography

John Dombrink is Professor of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine Daniel Hillyard is Assistant Professor of Law & Society at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Changing Moralities: Shifts in American Attitudes and Law in the "Moral Values" Debate	p. 1
Painless Prosperity: The Spread of Legal Gambling	p. 31
Abortion: Contestation and Ambivalence in the Long Era of Roe v. Wade	p. 53
Gay Rights: Beyond Tolerance and Privacy to Equality	p. 93
Assisted Suicide: The Road to New Rules of Dying	p. 127
Stem Cells: Framing Battles and the Race for a Cure	p. 186
Conclusion: To Form a More Purple Union?	p. 225
Notes	p. 257
References	p. 269
Index	p. 311
About the Authors	p. 33
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