Being a Disadvantaged Criminal Defendant: Mistrust and Resistance in Attorney-Client Interactions

Social Forces ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Clair
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Court ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Court System ◽  
Defense Attorneys ◽  
Self Advocacy ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Criminal Defendant ◽  
Relational Theories ◽  
Legal Expertise

Abstract Researchers have documented the power of legal officials to administer sanctions, from arrest to court surveillance and incarceration. How do those subject to punishment interact with officials and attempt to subvert their power? Drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations among 63 criminal defendants and 42 legal officials in the Boston-area court system, this article considers how socioeconomically and racially disadvantaged defendants interact with their defense attorneys, and with what consequences. Given racialized and classed constraints, many disadvantaged defendants mistrust their court-appointed lawyers. Their mistrust often results in withdrawal from their lawyers and active efforts to cultivate their own legal knowledge and skills. Defendants use their lay legal expertise to work around and resist the authority of their lawyers. Defense attorneys and judges respond with silencing and coercion, given the unwritten norms and rules of the court. These findings complicate existing accounts of disadvantaged defendants as passive actors and contribute to cultural sociological and relational theories of how people engage with professionals across institutional spaces. Unlike in mainstream institutions such as schools and hospitals where self-advocacy is rewarded in interactions, criminal court officials reject disadvantaged defendants’ attempts to advocate for themselves.

scholarly journals Resources, Navigation, and Punishment in the Criminal Courts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Clair
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Court System ◽  
Use Of Self ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Relative Ease ◽  
Court Processing ◽  
Legal Expertise

This paper considers how criminal defendants make consequential decisions during court processing. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations among a racially and socio-economically diverse sample of Boston-area defendants and among legal officials, the author describes defendants’ differential styles of engagement with lawyers and the court. Whereas defendants who have reason to trust their lawyers often delegate legal authority to them in consequential moments and experience relative ease of court navigation as a result, defendants who have reason to mistrust their lawyers often withdraw from lawyers and seek to acquire their own legal expertise, such as knowledge about criminal law and procedure learned in their communities, in jail, and through observation. Defendants’ assertive use of self-acquired expertise, however, is discouraged by the court system, often drawing punitive responses from legal officials and constraining defendants’ legal choices. Thus, the cultural styles and resources that scholars have shown to benefit the privileged in mainstream institutions such as schools and workplaces have negative repercussions in the criminal courts, often to the detriment of less-advantaged defendants. The author discusses implications for research on criminal court disparities and sociological theory on culture, expertise, and navigation across a range of institutions.

A Parens Patriae Figure or Impartial Fact Finder: Policy Questions and Conflicts for the Juvenile Court Judge

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph B. Sanborn
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Court ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Juvenile Courts ◽  
Defense Attorneys ◽  
Court Judge ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Adult Court ◽  
Parens Patriae

For several decades, juvenile courts functioned like clinics. Judges assigned there were instructed to assume a variety of roles: jurist, psychologist, counselor, sociologist, and parent. The In re Gault decision in 1967 granted juvenile defendants several constitutional rights that transformed juvenile courts into criminal court-like operations. Juvenile court judges have not been told whether they should continue to be paternal or emulate their counterparts in adult court; research has not addressed this subject. In this study, 100 juvenile court workers (judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers) from three juvenile courts (urban, suburban, rural) were interviewed to ascertain how judges operate in juvenile court and what these workers perceive to be the proper role for the judge. The data show that most workers believe that the role of the juvenile court judge is and should be unique.

Developmentally and Trauma-Sensitive Courtrooms

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 779-795 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Crenshaw ◽  
Lori Stella ◽  
Ellen O’Neill-Stephens ◽  
Celeste Walsen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Child Witnesses ◽  
Family Court ◽  
Humanistic Psychology ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Court System ◽  
Criminal Trials

Courtrooms in the United States whether family court or criminal court fall far short of being either developmentally or trauma sensitive. While there is growing recognition that vulnerable child witnesses are at risk of retraumatization by court procedures and some judges have used their discretionary powers to render courtrooms less toxic to children, the system was designed by adults for adults, and certainly not for children. The court process especially in criminal trials does not typically take into account the developmental constraints of children nor do they fully understand trauma in children and the risks to testifying child witnesses. Humanistic psychology has long stood for social justice and compassion toward our most vulnerable humans, especially children, but the long and slow-to-change traditions of the court system in the United States creates an environment that is inhospitable to children and even older victims as illustrated by the low rate of prosecutions in rape cases. This article outlines the distressing conditions that await child victims/witnesses in this country in comparison with other developed countries and an innovative, out-of-the box solution that does not interfere with the rights of the accused.

Increasing Self-Advocacy for Secondary Students With Disabilities: Evaluating Effects of ME!

Inclusion ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 194-207
Author(s):  
Valerie L. Mazzotti ◽  
Dawn A. Rowe ◽  
Jennifer C. Wall ◽  
Katie E. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Functional Relation ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Self Advocacy ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Research And Practice

Abstract Self-determination skills are a critical skill set that may increase the likelihood of students with disabilities attaining positive inclusive experiences in school that lead to inclusion into society. Although a number of self-determination curricula exist, there is limited research that evaluates the effectiveness of the ME! curriculum for improving secondary students with disabilities' self-advocacy knowledge and skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the ME! on self-advocacy and self-awareness knowledge and skills for secondary students with disabilities. Results demonstrated a functional relation between the ME! and participants' knowledge of ME! content. All participants showed increased participation during posttransition planning meetings. Findings support use of the ME! for enhancing students' self-advocacy and self-awareness knowledge and skills and generalizing that knowledge to authentic, inclusive contexts. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Beyond ‘African Solutions to African Problems’ at the Extraordinary African Chambers and ‘Distant Justice’ at the International Criminal Court

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thijs B Bouwknegt
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Court System ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
Congo Free State ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Cold Case ◽  
Passive Object

Abstract The trial of Chad’s former President Hissène Habré in 2015 was heartily anticipated and then heralded as an ‘African solution to African problems’. In myriad ways, the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) in Senegal’s court system indeed picketed a momentous transitional justice experience. It was simultaneously international, regional and local. It applied the universal jurisdiction principle. It judged a former and foreign head of state. It dealt with a ‘cold case’ from the Cold War. This was unprecedented in Africa and elsewhere. Crucially, the Habré trial departed from a ‘distant’, alienating trend of symbolic justice for African atrocities promised by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In Dakar, justice was pursued, performed and profited by those indirectly and directly victimized by the accused, while the passionate courtroom dynamics were palatably and transparently broadcasted. Notwithstanding these topical novelties, this article traces a more complex, more remote, and at times forgotten genealogy of transitional justice in Africa. By historicizing, contextualizing and exemplifying the Habré trial in light of unseen precedents from, inter alia, Congo Free State, Namibia, Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia, it seeks to add historical layers of complexity to portrayals of Africa as passive object in the evolution of international criminal justice.

INTERNATIONAL CRIMES WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURTS AND TRIBUNALS

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-84
Author(s):  
Magda Olesiuk-Okomska
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Far East ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Court System ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Military Tribunal ◽  
Massive Scale

Although in international law responsibility traditionally had belonged to states, along with involvement of individuals in conflicts between states and committing by them crimes on a massive scale, a need to criminalize such acts and to bring offenders guilty of the most serious violations of international law to justice - arose. Establishment of international criminal courts resulted from the need to fulfill internationally the idea of justice. Development of international criminal courts reflects differences in inter alia attitude towards ratione materiae of particular courts and tribunals. The purpose of this article is to present and discuss international crimes within the jurisdiction of international criminal courts and tribunals. A typology of international criminal courts was indicated and the most important courts and tribunals were presented in detail. The paper discusses subject jurisdiction of International Military Court in Nuremberg and International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokio, the first international courts established to bring war criminals to justice; as well as the subject jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, the only permanent court in international criminal court system, having universal jurisdiction. Four categories of the most serious crimes of international concern were considered, and doubts concerning subject jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, as well as its functioning in general, were signalized.

Part 12 Financing: Financement, Art.116 Voluntary contributions/Contributions volontaires

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schabas William A
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Voluntary Contributions ◽  
Financial Regulations ◽  
Almost All ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Legal Expertise

This chapter comments on Article 116 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 116 allows the Court to receive and utilize, as additional funds, voluntary contributions from Governments, international organizations, individuals, corporations and other entities, in accordance with relevant criteria adopted by the Assembly of States Parties. This criteria is set out in the Financial Regulations and Rules, which specify that voluntary contributions must be ‘consistent with the nature and functions of the Court’. Amounts received by the Court in the form of voluntary contributions have been modest. For the year 2014, they totalled less than €600,000, almost all of this earmarked for special projects such as building legal expertise, cooperation, relocation, and seminars.

Retrospective Review of Information Technologies in the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1545
Author(s):  
Aibek T. AKHMETOV ◽  
Sabigul D. BEKISHEVA ◽  
Aleksandr V. SYRBU ◽  
Dariga B. KAINAZAROVA
Keyword(s):  
Retrospective Review ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Criminal Case ◽  
Court System ◽  
The People ◽  
Court Processing ◽  
Modern Technologies

It is currently impossible to imagine the improvement of some sphere without modern technologies. The president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Presidential Message to the people underlines the need in the wide introduction of the elements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The objective of the paper is to analyze the retrospective review of the information technologies in the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan. As the method studying the research subject, we use the analysis of the criminal procedure legislation, digital programs, as well as the opinion of the scientists and specialists regarding the possibility of the introduction and use of the information technologies in the activities of the judicial authorities. A series of scientists prefer new progressive technologies in the criminal court processing, including the electronic criminal case. Besides, the programs dedicated to the development of the court system in Kazakhstan contain a series of prerequisites forcing the court reform to introduce the electronic base of the criminal case.

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