Institutionalizing the informal -- The Impact of Changing Values on Criminal Justice: A Study of Judges

• In Event: Cultural Change as a Catalyst: Tradition, Crises and Criminal Justice

Abstract

The primary objectives of this are to examine the intersection between the administration of criminal justice and the popular culture. Research demonstrates that the popular media (electronic and print) have succeeded in cultivating certain beliefs and values in engineering "moral panics" regarding criminal stereotypes. In addition to crime coverage, there is a rapidly growing scholarship on how the media treats the courts. Much attention has been paid to jury bias, televised trials, publication bans and judicial notice. This scholarship is fundamentally related to the problematic of balancing public accountability and professional independence. Despite pioneering research on how the actual workings of the court are influenced by interpretations based on nonjudicial factors, widespread interests have failed to examine the impact of the media on the administration of justice. A comprehensive analysis of the impact of the media on judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys is long overdue. This proposed empirical study seeks to remedy this gap

Author

• Livy Anthony Visano, York University