NCJ Number
216512
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 45 Issue: 5 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 485-501
Date Published
December 2006
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article reports on the findings of a British study that examined how ethnic-minority court magistrates experienced the court environment and their role within it.
Abstract
In examining whether Black and Asian magistrates experience racism and discrimination in the court environment, they did not report a court subculture of overt racism. Those magistrates who complained about their experiences on the bench referred to the careless use of language, inappropriate assumptions about cultural background, casual stereotyping, etc. Any discriminatory behaviors were perceived as thoughtless and insensitive rather than deliberate efforts to demean them due to their race. Twenty-eight percent of the 128 magistrates interviewed had perceived instances of such racism, and 4 magistrates believed they had received unequal treatment at the institutional level. Many of the magistrates believed that their discriminatory experiences in the court subculture were a mixture of attitudes stemming from value-related attitude linked not only to their ethnicity but also to education, social class, gender, and aspects of personality or personal philosophy. All of these factors, they believed, interacted to determine their experiences in the court environment. The study was conducted in 14 magistrates' courts in England and Wales. Out of the 303 ethnic-minority magistrates in these courts, individual interviews were conducted with 128 magistrates in 10 of the courts. Discussion groups with White magistrates were held in five of the courts. Thirty-nine percent of the minority magistrates were women. 5 notes and 24 references