To enhance our understanding of the operation of the criminal justice system, systematic study of the way ethnicity affects victimization and punishments is needed. Examining the experiences of ethnic groups, Dr. McKanna studies homicides and lynchings in nineteenth century California, within two mining camp areas and, during a period in which Hispanic dominance of agriculture was being replaced by Anglo dominance, in the coastal regions. The data sources being used by this investigator are rich and varied, including county registers of indictments, coroners' reports, prison files, and records on applications for pardons as well as newspaper accounts and secondary sources. This period in Californian history (1850-1900) is a particularly ripe context for examining the interrelationship between ethnicity, violence, and mechanisms of social control because it was a time in which power relationships were in flux, and there were social tensions surrounding race and ethnicity. Dr. McKanna's research contributes to our understanding of violent crime and the operation of the criminal justice system by carefullly considering the important questions of what the role of ethnicity is in homicides and whether minorities receive equal justice before the law.
