“Listen, Hear my Side, Back Me up”: What Clients Want from Public Defenders

IF 0.7 4区社会学 Q3 Social Sciences

Justice System Journal Pub Date : 2021-12-08 DOI:10.1080/0098261X.2021.2011496

Heather Pruss, M. Sandys, S. M. Walsh

{"title":"“Listen, Hear my Side, Back Me up”: What Clients Want from Public Defenders","authors":"Heather Pruss, M. Sandys, S. M. Walsh","doi":"10.1080/0098261X.2021.2011496","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The current study was designed to understand what persons represented by public defenders want from their attorney and how they hope or aspire to interact with their attorney. The results of a thematic analysis of qualitative responses to those inquiries, from 120 people represented by a rural public defender agency, are presented in this article. Though extant literature in this area is scant, the findings here largely echo those prior works: participants articulated a desire for attorneys who effectively communicate, thoroughly investigate, and zealously advocate for them. The data here add nuance, however, to client conceptualizations of those distinct duties, and how clients report they might behave differently with their ideal attorney. Findings also highlight clients’ pronounced “resignation” (Casper 1970) related to systemic deficiencies in public defense and criminal justice systems more broadly, particularly following case disposition—despite overall satisfaction with their individual attorneys. We conclude by discussing implications for practicing attorneys and possible areas of future research.","PeriodicalId":45509,"journal":{"name":"Justice System Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2021-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Justice System Journal","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0098261X.2021.2011496","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 2

Abstract

Abstract The current study was designed to understand what persons represented by public defenders want from their attorney and how they hope or aspire to interact with their attorney. The results of a thematic analysis of qualitative responses to those inquiries, from 120 people represented by a rural public defender agency, are presented in this article. Though extant literature in this area is scant, the findings here largely echo those prior works: participants articulated a desire for attorneys who effectively communicate, thoroughly investigate, and zealously advocate for them. The data here add nuance, however, to client conceptualizations of those distinct duties, and how clients report they might behave differently with their ideal attorney. Findings also highlight clients’ pronounced “resignation” (Casper 1970) related to systemic deficiencies in public defense and criminal justice systems more broadly, particularly following case disposition—despite overall satisfaction with their individual attorneys. We conclude by discussing implications for practicing attorneys and possible areas of future research.

查看原文本刊更多论文

“倾听，倾听我的观点，支持我”:客户对公设辩护人的要求

摘要本研究旨在了解由公设辩护人代表的人希望从他们的律师那里得到什么，以及他们希望或渴望如何与他们的律师互动。本文介绍了对农村公设辩护人机构代表的120人对这些询问的定性答复进行专题分析的结果。尽管这一领域的现有文献很少，但这里的发现在很大程度上与之前的研究相呼应:参与者表达了对律师的渴望，他们能有效地沟通，彻底地调查，并积极地为他们辩护。然而，这里的数据增加了客户对这些不同职责的概念的细微差别，以及客户如何报告他们与理想律师的不同行为。调查结果还强调了客户明显的“辞职”(Casper 1970)，这与更广泛的公共辩护和刑事司法系统的系统性缺陷有关，特别是在案件处理之后——尽管他们对个人律师的总体满意度很高。我们通过讨论对执业律师的影响和未来可能的研究领域来结束。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Justice System Journal LAW-

CiteScore

0.90

自引率

14.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Justice System Journal is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes original research articles on all aspects of law, courts, court administration, judicial behavior, and the impact of all of these on public and social policy. Open as to methodological approaches, The Justice System Journal aims to use the latest in advanced social science research and analysis to bridge the gap between practicing and academic law, courts and politics communities. The Justice System Journal invites submission of original articles and research notes that are likely to be of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field of law, courts, and judicial administration, broadly defined. Articles may draw on a variety of research approaches in the social sciences. The journal does not publish articles devoted to extended analysis of legal doctrine such as a law review might publish, although short manuscripts analyzing cases or legal issues are welcome and will be considered for the Legal Notes section. The Justice System Journal was created in 1974 by the Institute for Court Management and is published under the auspices of the National Center for State Courts. The Justice System Journal features peer-reviewed research articles as well as reviews of important books in law and courts, and analytical research notes on some of the leading cases from state and federal courts. The journal periodically produces special issues that provide analysis of fundamental and timely issues on law and courts from both national and international perspectives.