Public Opinion about Judicial Roles and Responsibilities: A Latent Profile Analysis

• In Event: Attitudes and the Criminal Court System

Abstract

Though public opinion can influence policy and judicial practices, little contemporary research considers the U.S. public’s opinions of judicial roles and responsibilities (Kritzer, 2021). We drew data from a nationwide survey of 4,861 jury-eligible persons to address this gap. Respondents rated the importance of 10 judicial responsibilities and decision-making considerations using items adapted from a survey of trial court judges (Farole Jr, 2009). We employed latent profile analysis to identify subgroups based their ratings and conducted bivariate and multivariate analyses to examine group differences across sociodemographic characteristics. A four-group model best fit the data and produced the most interpretable solution. The largest group (47.4%) demonstrated the highest importance ratings, suggesting they value the administration of justice, public safety, procedural justice, helping the accused, and community input. The second largest group (39.5%) also valued the administration of justice but were ambivalent about procedural justice and helping the accused and did not support community input. They also were the most politically conservative and older, on average. The next group (7.8%) generally rated all items as neither important nor unimportant, suggesting a lack of opinion on the issues surveyed. The final and smallest group (5.4%) rated all responsibilities and considerations as unimportant.

Authors

• Sarah Louise Desmarais, Policy Research Associates

• Samantha Zottola, Policy Research Associates

• Kamiya Stewart, Policy Research Associates

• John Monahan, University of Virginia School of Law