Researching Law Volume 31 Issue 1 - Flipbook - Page 4
R ESEA RC HI N G L AW
Until then, crime surveys relied
almost exclusively on printed
records of information about
arrests, prosecutions, and
convictions. This sort of work did
not allow for insight into what led
police to arrest individuals, how
judgments were made
that led to charges, or any other
actions that made up the routine
administration of justice.
Because little was known about
the day-to-day administration
of justice, Justice Jackson noted,
it was challenging to propose
meaningful reforms. To find out
more, empirical research was
needed. The goals, he said, were
not just effective law enforcement
but also protection of individual
rights. He recommended research
on the points at which the existing
process could be used, purposely
or unconsciously, to harass or
jeopardize innocent persons.
The ABA had recently created the
American Bar Foundation in 1952,
with the mission of becoming the
preeminent provider of empirical
research fundamental to legal
institutions and legal processes.
The Survey on Criminal Justice
Administration was among
the ABF’s first major projects,
providing the Foundation with the
opportunity to devote significant
time, effort, and resources to a
long term, empirical research
program. This was instrumental in
establishing the ABF as a center for
high-quality research that guides
the legal profession, the academy,
and society.
The Survey Process:
Examining the
Administration of
Criminal Justice
To guide the Survey process,
Arthur Sherry, a law professor
Paradize Valley, Detroit, Michigan, 1942. A business and entertainment African
American neighborhood that was later transformed in the1960s. Image courtesy of
William Vandivert, The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
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from the University of California
created a 190-page project plan.
The plan called for the study of
“organization, administration and
operation” of 1) police,
2) prosecution and defense, 3)
courts, and 4) probation, sentence,
and parole. The research plan was
flexible and open-ended, intended
as an exploratory ethnographic
study. It aimed to systematically
and directly observe criminal
justice agencies in operations, and
in this way, provided a roadmap
toward a new paradigm.
From 1955 through 1957, field
teams of observers went into
cities and rural areas of Wisconsin,
Kansas, and Michigan. In an
unprecedented move, researchers
did on-the-ground observational
research of both low- and highvisibility daily criminal justice
practices. Their approach focused
on decision-making and examining
what police, prosecutors, judges,
probation and parole officers did in
everyday practice. They observed
the discretionary actions that took
place at each decision point, rather
than assuming that the ‘law on the
books’ was followed and that legal
analyses sufficed.
The field team members rode in
police cars, observed police station
behavior, and watched prosecutors
as they reviewed cases and charged
defendants. They also sat in
courtrooms, spoke to judges, and
watched arraignments sentencing.
Finally, they observed probation
officers and sat with parole boards
to understand the supervision,