Perceptions of lawyers—a transnational study of student views on the image of law and lawyers

Asimow, Michael; Greenfield, Steve; Jorge, Guillermo; Machura, Stefan; Osborn, Guy; Robson, Peter; Sharp, Cassandra E; Sockloskie, Robert J.

doi:10.1080/09695950500420358

Cited by 24 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…O' Barr and Conley (1976) found that how (adult) witnesses responded in court did not impact participants' perceptions of the witness but did influence judgments about the lawyers. There appears to be a negative perception surrounding lawyers' trustworthiness and ethical standards (Asimow et al, 2005). However, some positive lawyer attributes, including intelligence, have yet to be studied directly in relation to how they impact juror decisionmaking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adults’ sensitivity to the age-appropriateness of lawyer’s questioning of children in a physical abuse case.

Bruer¹,

Furlong²,

Williams³

et al. 2021

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des

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This study explored if adults (laypersons) are sensitive to the appropriateness of questions posed by lawyers to child witnesses in court. We examined whether this sensitivity, if present, was influenced by (a) the child's age (6 or 12-year old) and (b) the presence of judicial instructions. We also explored whether sensitivity to question appropriateness was related to adults' perceived credibility of a child witness. All participants (N = 217) were provided with an adapted trial transcript depicting a prosecution lawyer questioning a child in a physical abuse case in Canada. Results suggest adults are sensitive to different types of questions asked to children but that this sensitivity involves a significant bias toward labeling all questions as appropriate for use with a child. The presence of judicial instructions, designed to highlight developmental considerations of a child witness was found to influence this sensitivity. Specifically, the presence of the judicial instructions was found to encourage adults to better consider whether a question posed to a child was appropriate. We also found that increased perceptions of witness intelligence were related to a reduction in sensitivity but that this effect was reversed with older children. These findings have important implications for how legal decision makers (i.e., jurors) may assess testimony provided by a child in court. Public Significance StatementWhen providing testimony in abuse cases, children are frequently asked questions that are too complicated for them to provide clear, coherent answers. But do the jurors listening to children's testimony know when a question is not appropriate for children? Although adults were found to pay attention to questions asked to children, they could not identify when a question was inappropriate.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adults’ sensitivity to the age-appropriateness of lawyer’s questioning of children in a physical abuse case.

Bruer¹,

Furlong²,

Williams³

et al. 2021

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des

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“…The news content can have an influence on trust (Dirikx et al 2013). Most fictional TV programmes present police and law professionals in a positive light which influences the public's opinion on law enforcement agencies (Asimow et al 2005;Machura 2006;Machura and Kammertöns 2009). More recently, so-called 'reality police shows' have become highly popular among viewers.…”

Section: Other Factors Explaining Trust In the Police In A Welsh Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welsh Nationalism, Language and Students’ Trust in the UK Police

Machura

Almjnoni²,

Vavrik³

et al. 2020

Int J Polit Cult Soc

Self Cite

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Where nationality, coupled to minority language, forms a key factor of identities, and there is a history of conflict, it may be difficult for the police to command trust. In north-west Wales, Welsh is the language of the majority. Against the background of historic experiences of exploitation, oppression, and perceived neglect by English authorities, many locals have a negative view of the UK police. But what characterises those who are most in opposition? A total of 283 students at Bangor University participated in a questionnaire study. Results show that students who prefer to communicate in Welsh rather than English are more likely to distrust the UK police. While there are deep rooted tensions based on national identity, the police may gain trust from different sources compensating the cultural divide. They include mass media reports and experiences with the police. Overall however, the results support the group position theory applied to relations between people identifying with different nations.

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“…In particular, the legal profession was considered to confer gentlemanly status and has been shown to hold particularly high regard as a status p ofessio (Elliot, 1972: 14). The reverence given to professions in the UK is the British disease as reflected in research detailing the varying perspectives of a cross-national study of law students (Asimow et al, 2005). That study features students drawn from institutions in Europe, North and South America but it was those in British universities that really bought into the high status of the legal profession.…”

Section: Lawyers' Self-imagementioning

confidence: 99%