Emotional Harm in Housing Discrimination Cases: A New Look at a Lingering Problem

This Article explores relevant social science data and examines how it affects the analysis and understanding of evidence of emotional harm. Part I provides an overview of the current state of emotional harm cases. Part II discusses the issue of bias in the process of reviewing discrimination cases from the perspective of critical race theory and recent social science data. In Part III, this Article examines the cycles of ignorance that have contributed to an under-valuation of emotional harm in housing discrimination litigation.

Finally, suggestions are made about how to gather relevant psychological and medical information on the effects of discrimination and how to incorporate that information into a case so that the full extent of emotional harm is more properly understood and the victim of discrimination is made whole.