ABSTRACT

The topic of this volume is interdisciplinary approaches to the study of law. Few areas of law are more ripe for interdisciplinary analysis than pretrial publicity, if only because it smoothes our worst interdisciplinary turf wars. Social scientists, a terrific lot I count myself a member of, can often get carried away with themselves and begin to insist that they are doing pure science. Remembering too well their graduate school research methods textbooks, they can summon derision for applied research (generally because it lacks some vital component of research design) as a lesser form of labor, ranking somewhere between dishwasher and dog catcher. Not so with pretrial publicity: The topic is thoroughly applied. Although grand theories about things like nonverbal communication and decision-making schemas and agenda setting can explain the issues that arise, and although even the snootiest “pure” social scientist will begrudgingly admit that practice informs theories, the research into pretrial publicity is generally directed at improving courtroom practice and only to a much lesser extent testing theories.