Book contents
- Injury and Injustice
- Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
- Injury and Injustice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Injury and the Construction of Legal Subjects
- Part II Constructing Injury and Imagining Remedies
- Chapter Five Chairs, Stairs, and Automobiles
- Chapter Six Incommensurability and Power in Constructing the Meaning of Injury at the Medical Malpractice Disputes
- Chapter Seven Injury Fields
- Chapter Eight Good Injuries
- Chapter Nine Privacy and the Right to One's Image
- Part III Inequality and/as Injury
- Conclusion
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
- References
Chapter Five - Chairs, Stairs, and Automobiles
The Cultural Construction of Injuries and the Failed Promise of Law
from Part II - Constructing Injury and Imagining Remedies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2018
Book contents
- Injury and Injustice
- Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
- Injury and Injustice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Injury and the Construction of Legal Subjects
- Part II Constructing Injury and Imagining Remedies
- Chapter Five Chairs, Stairs, and Automobiles
- Chapter Six Incommensurability and Power in Constructing the Meaning of Injury at the Medical Malpractice Disputes
- Chapter Seven Injury Fields
- Chapter Eight Good Injuries
- Chapter Nine Privacy and the Right to One's Image
- Part III Inequality and/as Injury
- Conclusion
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
- References
Summary
Tens of millions of Americans experience physical injuries each year. But even when the harm is serious, the vast majority of Americans don’t sue, don’t consult a lawyer, and don’t make any claim against another party. Why do so few injury victims assert claims, and where do all the other injury cases go? This chapter argues that the answer lies in the social construction of injuries and in the cultural norms and concepts that shape the identities and actions of injurers, injury victims, and their social and physical surroundings. Engel describes six ways in which the cultural construction of injuries and actors operate to suppress claiming and encourage lumping in injury cases. This analysis of the social and cultural context of injuries casts doubt on tort law’s capacity to achieve its goals of compensation, deterrence, loss distribution, and corrective justice for injury victims—either directly or through its shadow effects. The belief that American tort law can reduce injuries and provide justice may be nothing more than a comforting myth.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Injury and InjusticeThe Cultural Politics of Harm and Redress, pp. 117 - 134Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
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