“. . . The Law Is All Over”: Power, Resistance and the Legal Consciousness of the Welfare Poor

Sarat, Austin

doi:10.4324/9781315259604-12

Cited by 157 publications

(165 citation statements)

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“…Legal mobilization is also used to describe how individuals seek to use the court process to fight injustice more generally (Marshall & Barclay, ). In contrast to the procedural justice and legitimacy frameworks, work in legal mobilization has a distinct social justice dimension, often concerned with the extent to which legal institutions are places of entrenched power that sustain social inequality (Ewick & Silbey, ; Marshall & Barclay, ; Sarat, ). Despite the promise of legal mobilization research findings to reveal how we understand voice in the legal process, empirical researchers have neglected questions about what people want to express and the content of voice, particularly as a tool to address perceived inequalities or injustice.…”

Section: Conceptualizing Voicementioning

confidence: 99%

Role of voice in the legal process*

Pennington

Farrell

2019

Criminology

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As communities face unrest and protest because of perceived racial bias and decreased trust and confidence in the criminal justice system, it is critical to explore mechanisms that foster institutional legitimacy. Voice is a central element in the procedural justice framework because it is anticipated to promote process control as well as a shared understanding between institutions and communities. As a concept, however, voice is undertheorized. Measures of voice used in legitimacy research may result in oversimplification of the concept, not fully capturing the struggles disadvantaged people face in trying to exercise influence in the court system. Through the use of rich data from qualitative interviews with youth and families involved in the juvenile justice system and in‐depth observations of juvenile court events, we explore what voice is, the mechanisms through which people try to assert voice, and how voice matters in the legal process. Respondents sought voice for many reasons, including to validate their experiences, to affirm their membership in a community, and to assert concerns about perceived police misconduct. Contrary to traditional conceptualizations of voice as a static event (e.g., having voice or not having voice), voice was a process of negotiating dialogue between court officials and court participants throughout the legal process.

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Section: Conceptualizing Voicementioning

confidence: 99%

Role of voice in the legal process*

Pennington

Farrell

2019

Criminology

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“…Once an individual suspects that discrimination may have occurred, he or she must take the important first step of determining whether it is worth beginning to pursue a claim. The process of exercising legal rights is affected by the organizational settings in which they are applied, the nature of the competing claims made by using rights, and the different social locations of the individual rights claims (Merry 1990;Merry 2003;Nielsen 2000;Sarat 1990;Sarat & Kearns 1995;Yngvesson 1985). It is not just a product of the law, but also of social context; of how the problems are defined by court actors such as judges (Merry 1990), court clerks (Yngvesson 1988), friends and neighbors (Albiston 2005;Ewick & Silbey 1998;Nielsen 2000); and of past experiences with law and legal actors (Macaulay 1963;Merry 1990;Nielsen 2000;Sarat & Kearns 1995).…”

Section: Legal Cynicismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Race and Determinations of Discrimination: Vigilance, Cynicism, Skepticism, and Attitudes about Legal Mobilization in Employment Civil Rights

McElhattan¹,

Nielsen²,

Weinberg³

2017

Law Soc Rev

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What factors affect whether ordinary citizens believe that workplace decisions involving African‐American employees rise to the level of discrimination? When do observers believe targets of possible race discrimination should consider mobilizing the law? We use a factorial design vignette study administered to a nationally representative sample of 2,087 ordinary people to address these questions. The “vigilance hypothesis” predicts that minorities will be more likely to perceive discrimination than whites. Our analysis partially confirms this: African Americans perceive anti‐Black discrimination at higher rates than do whites and Latinos, while Latinos do not show a significant difference from whites. Where respondents believe discrimination occurred, we analyze what influences whether respondents might recommend legal mobilization. The “cynicism hypothesis” suggests that people of color may be less likely to favor using law. We find, however, that African‐American and Latino respondents express more confidence in civil litigation, compared to whites. Further, African Americans express the strongest support for legal mobilization (recommending that a “friend” contact an attorney), while whites and Latinos do not differ in mobilization recommendations.

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“…Legal consciousness generally refers to how individuals think about law, whereas legal culture refers to aggregate understandings about law (Ewick and Silbey, 1998;Merry, 1990;Nelken, 1997;Sarat, 1990;Scheingold, 1974; see Legal Culture and Legal Consciousness; Law and Everyday Life). Legal consciousness generally refers to how individuals think about law, whereas legal culture refers to aggregate understandings about law (Ewick and Silbey, 1998;Merry, 1990;Nelken, 1997;Sarat, 1990;Scheingold, 1974; see Legal Culture and Legal Consciousness; Law and Everyday Life).…”

Section: Legal Consciousness Rights Consciousness and Legal Culturementioning

confidence: 99%