With Jurors in Mind: An Ethnographic Study of Prosecutors’ Narratives

Offit, Anna

doi:10.1177/1743872117717426

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…The barrister directed how the evidence should be packaged and presented to the jury in a way that simplified the presentation of large amounts of (sometimes) complex data (for a similar account, see Wettergren and Bergman Blix 2016). These extracts of backstage discussions illustrate the importance assigned to clarity in the presentation of evidence at trial and align with Offit's (2021) findings that prosecutors presumed that jurors who were confused by evidence or who misunderstood it might perceive defects in the case.…”

Section: Stage Propsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Also in Sweden, Wettergren and Bergman Blix (2016) observed how, when preparing cases for court, prosecutors imagined how professionals and lay people would interpret and react to the evidence given. In America, Offit (2021) drew on her participatory research in Attorney's offices to demonstrate how prosecutors collaboratively assembled and revised their opening and closing statements for trial.…”

Section: Ethnography and The Legal Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Backstage at the Barristers’ Case Conference: A Dramaturgical Analysis

Jones,

Brookman

2023

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

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Socio-legal ethnographies have focused largely on the dramaturgical themes present in the competing performances seen in adversarial trials. Drawing on ethnographic observations of British homicide investigations, we illuminate the hidden “backstage” space of prosecution barristers’ case conferences. Using Goffman’s dramaturgical framework, we analyze the interactions, deliberations, and negotiations that are enacted between barristers, homicide detectives, forensic scientists, and other specialists. To our knowledge, the work that happens in these conferences has never been documented. Our findings reveal how prosecution narratives evolve and are tested behind the scenes before being performed in court. We pay particular attention to the role of anticipatory work in guiding how criminal justice actors choreograph the prosecution case. The findings add to our understanding of narrative case building and elaborate Goffman’s dramaturgical framework. We discuss the implications of our findings for due process.

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Section: Stage Propsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Ethnography and The Legal Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Backstage at the Barristers’ Case Conference: A Dramaturgical Analysis

Jones,

Brookman

2023

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

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“…In Norway, as in the United States, all-layperson juries inject uncertainty and unpredictability into legal proceedings (Offit 2016). However, prosecutors and judges conceptualize this uncertainty differently and deploy distinct narrative techniques to manage it.…”

Section: Pre-2017 Reform: Practical and Procedural Checks On All-laypmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this lawyer's view, prosecuting cases in front of juries required anticipating and responding to their intuitions about case outcomes (Offit ). This included crafting rebuttals that explicitly responded to defense counsel's arguments (A8, pers.…”

Section: Pre‐2017 Reform: Practical and Procedural Checks On All‐laypmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Jury Is Out: An Ethnographic Study of Lay Participation in the Norwegian Legal System

Offit

2018

PoLAR

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The purpose of this article is to explore perceptions and assessments of lay participation in Norway during a historic time of transition away from all‐layperson juries. This study consisted of sixteen months of court observation and interviews with judges, prosecutors, former lay decision makers, defense attorneys, and other contributors to the country's longstanding jury debate. My ethnographic research demonstrates that all‐layperson juries in Norway face practical and procedural checks that differentiate them from Anglo‐American juries, among others. For this reason, legal professionals in Norway evince confidence that mixed courts of lay and professional citizens can facilitate fair case outcomes. A central finding from this research is that comparative analyses of all‐layperson juries and mixed courts require attention to the social specificity of the states that support such systems. To this end, lay participation in Norway challenges the conventional wisdom that jurors have greater independence and control over case outcomes than lay judges.

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“…There are many ways in which narrative and ethnography may be combined, and we direct the interested reader to burgeoning work on ethnographic research on narratives (Gubrium & Holstein, 2008) and the performance of stories (Cashman, 2012). Narrative criminologists have also employed ethnography in the study of offenders' narratives (Fleetwood & Sandberg, forthcoming;Tutenges & Sandberg 2013;Tutenges, 2019), and those of criminal justice professionals (Offit, 2017(Offit, , 2019Ugelvik, 2016). Our concern here is to consider what attentiveness to narrative might add to ethnographic research whilst maintaining a commitment to criminological verstehen (Ferrell, 1997).…”

Section: Introduction: No Pain No Flamementioning

confidence: 99%

Prepping and verstehen

Mills¹,

Fleetwood²

2019

Tijdschrift Over Cultuur &Amp; Criminaliteit

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Talk, chat, and stories are ubiquitous in ethnographic research. Engaging with the recently burgeoning literature around narrative criminology, this article argues that considerations of stories and storytelling can add much to cultural criminologists' pursuit of 'criminological verstehen' (Ferrell, 1997). In doing so, we focus on one case study: ethnographic research grounded within the USA's contemporary 'doomsday' prepping subculture. The article considers the value of attending to narrative during the pursuit of verstehen at two levels. First, we address the importance of storytelling upon entry to the ethnographic field-drawing attention to how the narratives researchers share, and their respect for certain stories, can facilitate deep and experiential access to stigmatised fields of activity (such as prepping). Second, we explore how narrative remains in play during immediate experiences. In particular, we argue that fleeting excitements featured in prepping lifestyles are often shaped by the significance of the 'moments' in which they occur to numerous personal narratives. We therefore contend that, for ethnographers interested in verstehen, a consideration of narrative offers a means to expand and deepen empathetic appreciation of participants' worldviews and activities.

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With Jurors in Mind: An Ethnographic Study of Prosecutors’ Narratives

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Backstage at the Barristers’ Case Conference: A Dramaturgical Analysis

Backstage at the Barristers’ Case Conference: A Dramaturgical Analysis

The Jury Is Out: An Ethnographic Study of Lay Participation in the Norwegian Legal System

Prepping and verstehen

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