On the (Zoom) Record: The Role of Video-Conferencing in Detention Hearing Proceedings

• In Event: The Impact of COVID 19 on Courts and Case Processing

Abstract

Courts nationwide adopted the use of video-conferencing technology to continue operating in response to COVID-19. Although video-conferencing technology has been utilized nationwide in a limited capacity for nearly three decades, the rapid increase in the implementation and use of such technologies has led to recent calls for timely research into the practice. Utilizing a sample of virtual detention hearing cases (N = 330) collected observationally (from April 2020 – April 2021) in a New Jersey courtroom, we provide insight into how the use of technology influenced the court process. For example, we find that in a substantial number of cases (n = 94), defendants were disconnected from their virtual hearing and court actors routinely (n = 254) experienced technical difficulties during proceedings (i.e., complete disconnections, loss of video and/or audio functioning). Additionally, we explore how these technological difficulties may have affected detention decisions and how the magnitude of the occurrences may have changed over time as the court became more aquatinted with video-conferencing technology. By providing this unique perspective into virtual courtrooms, we advance criminological understandings of how video-conferencing technology can maintain and possibly even worsen inequality in the courtroom. Lastly, we provide implications for policy and directions for future research.

Authors

• Luis C. Torres, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Ashley Appleby, Rutgers University, Newark

• Elizabeth M. Lyne, University of Missouri - St. Louis