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Stone Collection: Volume 84 - Item 26
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Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 84



26. Walter Clark, “The True Remedy for Lynch Law,” American Law Review 28 (November-December 1894): 801-807.


Essay concerning the question of why societies revert to lynching. “The cause of lynching is not a spirit of lawlessness. As a rule the men who participate in it wish ardently to enforce justice. The truth is society feels that it must be protected against crime. Whenever society has lost confidence in the promptness and certainty of punishment by the courts, then whenever an offense sufficiently flagrant is committed society will protect itself by a lynching.” The author’s solution to problem of lynching is the removal of legal technicalities that criminals exploit as a means for delaying or even avoiding the penalty for what they have done.