“Nobody Trusts What They Get for Free”: Legitimation in the Criminal Legal System

• In Event: Data in Indigent Defense: Problems and Solutions in Representation

Abstract

One of the most troubling observations about the criminal legal system’s legitimacy crisis is that accused individuals often fail to trust the public defenders appointed to serve them. This study considers how public defenders actively worked to counter perceived illegitimacy. I draw on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted with public defenders working in New York City. I find public defenders employed three legitimation strategies: (1) relational alignment and distancing; (2) displays of competency and resources; and (3) sympathy, explanation, and power. These strategies convey public defenders’ legal orientations; permit them to offer displays of professional and workgroup-specific expertise; and clarify an idiosyncratic and disempowering process. Public defenders were therefore sensitive to challenges to their status as “real lawyers” and made intentional efforts at establishing trust in high-stakes situations. Still, the nature of criminal-legal processing constrained attorney-client relationships and legitimation efforts. This paper accordingly contributes to recent studies on system-involved persons’ legal cynicism and attorney distrust, while offering new empirical insight into public defenders’ efforts to counteract such perceptions.

Author

• Gillian Slee, Stanford University