Connecting Peoples’ Perceptions and Interactions in Courts: An Intersectionality, Procedural Justice and Legal Consciousness Approach

• In Event: Perceptions of Police, Crime, and Justice

Abstract

This presentation considers how three theoretical perspectives – intersectionality, procedural justice and legal consciousness – can be combined to better understand how race, class and gender influence peoples’ perceptions of and subsequent interactions with the justice system. It argues that we must look beyond the peoples’ specific interactions with the justice staff in one case to consider their involvement in multiple institutional contexts. In doing so, it argues that using any of these three perspectives on their own will not sufficiently capture the variations and complexities of how peoples’ views of the justice system affect their behavior towards the justice staff or how race, class and gender become salient in that process. To highlight this approach, the talk will present an analysis of 30 families’ experiences in New York City Family Court where their youths have delinquency cases.

Author

• Leslie Paik, City University of New York