TRIAL COURTS AS ORGANIZATIONS: A Critique and Synthesis

In: Law & Policy, Band 3, Heft 1, S. 69-94

Abstract

This article has two purposes: (1) to suggest that the informal workgroup is the most appropriate concept from organization theory to explain both participant behavior occurring in criminal trial courts and trial court outputs; and (2) to use the informal workgroup framework to structure the findings generated by previous studies of trial courts. The informal workgroup proves to be a useful way to account for the disjuncture between the adversarial expectations and regularized individual behavior patterns researchers find in criminal trial courts. Furthermore, this concept provides a vehicle to explain the development of uniformities in output such as a classification of criminals, the categorization of crime, and sentencing yardsticks. The conclusion discusses the implications of the informal workgroup for efforts aimed at court reform.