This book illuminates how "cultural evidence" ("evidence" regarding ethnicity) is negotiated by attorneys, witnesses, and defendants in criminal trials. Braunmühl argues that the controversy regarding the legitimacy of a "cultural defense" has tended to obscure its origin in colonialist and patriarchal discourses, and has been biased against minorities as well as all women from its inception.

Part I: Introduction Part II: Theoretical Perspective Part III: The Corpus of Cases Part IV: Ethnicizing Prosecutions and Defenses: 'Culture' and 'Gender' in Trial Parties' Argumentative Strategies and in the Debate About 'the Cultural Defense' 1. Biases and Blindspots in the Debate 2. Cultural Profiling: The Patriarchal Other-First Case Study 3. 'Cultural Defense' I: The Oppressed Third World Woman-Second Case Study 4. 'Cultural Defense' II: The Patriarchal Other-Third Case Study 5. Conclusion: Cultural Information or Gendered Colonial Discourse? Part V: Resistance/Instabilities: The Spectrum of Discursive Politics in Trials Involving 'Cultural Evidence' and the Involuntary Subversion of Hegemonic Discourse 6. Contesting 'Cultural Evidence': Adversarial Opposition or Mutual Collusion? 7. Witnesses and Hegemonic Consensus 8. Beyond Mere 'Resistance': The Spectrum of Instabilities Fracturing Hegemonic Trial Discourse and What Difference They Make Part VI: Conclusion: Practical/Theoretical Implications.