ABSTRACT
There is a rich tradition of court-based studies that provide a solid foundation for criminological research by demonstrating the variety of analyses that can result from qualitative approaches. Ranging from naturalistic ethnographies (Bortner, 1982; Cicourel, 1967; Emerson, 1969; Feeley, 1979; Warren, 1982), ethnomethodological-informed studies (Atkinson & Drew, 1979; Garfinkel, 1956, 1967; Holstein, 1993; Maynard, 1982, 1984; Pollner, 1979), to more theoretically informed ethnographies (Mirchandani, 2005; Nolan, 2001), court-based qualitative research is extremely diverse in methodologies and perspectives. In looking at these court-based studies, we can see how such diversity informs, not only those interested in court-based research, but also any qualitative researcher interested in the workings of the justice system to understand how the overall justice process works and perpetuates broader social inequalities. So, although the number of court-based studies has seemingly decreased in recent years, as researchers have focused more on the front end of the justice system (e.g., racial profiling in arrest practices, neighborhood contexts influencing likelihood of offending) or the back end, with collateral consequences (e.g., reentry, stigma of criminal records on employment outcomes, or the impact of parental incarceration on families), this chapter seeks to reaffirm the value of qualitative court-based studies and present new topics to be studied related to court-case processing.
