ETHNIC BIASES AND RACIALIZATION IN SWEDISH JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS - A qualitative study regarding lay judges’ narratives on Ethnic Discrimination and Racialization in judicial proceedings
(2021) SOLM02 20211Department of Sociology of Law
- Abstract (Swedish)
- The purpose of this study has been to examine how lay judges serving in district courts and appellate courts talk about their experiences of racism and ethnic discrimination in legal proceedings and what strategies exist to counteract these contradictions. The focus is on the judges' presentation of their own stories about anticipating derogatory treatment of a defendants and what is done organizationally to counteract these biases. Furthermore, the study and analysis of the empirical material is based on Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework, where the central concepts of the study have been limited to Social Field and Capital, as well as Erving Goffmans Dramaturgical Perspective. This choice of theory’s strives to leave room to see... (More)
- The purpose of this study has been to examine how lay judges serving in district courts and appellate courts talk about their experiences of racism and ethnic discrimination in legal proceedings and what strategies exist to counteract these contradictions. The focus is on the judges' presentation of their own stories about anticipating derogatory treatment of a defendants and what is done organizationally to counteract these biases. Furthermore, the study and analysis of the empirical material is based on Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework, where the central concepts of the study have been limited to Social Field and Capital, as well as Erving Goffmans Dramaturgical Perspective. This choice of theory’s strives to leave room to see what significance language, education, ethnicity, external attributes, social performance and body language can affect both the defendant in the trial but also the judges' own attitude to the case. To find out this, qualitative semi-structured interviews with lay judges from the District Court and the Court of Appeal were conducted.
The study shows that the lay judges believe that the Swedish legal system is not a free zone from either racialization or ethnic discrimination, but that these biases in the judicial process are mainly shown "behind closed doors", as during the deliberation. Therefore, the analysis of the results has resulted in a strong connection to Erving Goffman's concepts of frontstage and backstage. The lay judges' frontstage is the courtroom, in which they need to put on a mask to displace uncomfortable and difficult thoughts, feelings, values and emotions. Their backstage is during the deliberations where they are allowed to take off their masks and be more outspoken, show emotions, ask questions and judge according to personal as well as political values and opinions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9062232
- author
- Flodin, Emma LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOLM02 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Ethnic Discrimination, Racialization, Biases, Capital, Frontstage, Backstage, Lay Judges, Legal Processes, Defendant.
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9062232
- date added to LUP
- 2021-08-17 13:31:14
- date last changed
- 2021-08-17 13:31:14
@misc{9062232,
abstract = {{The purpose of this study has been to examine how lay judges serving in district courts and appellate courts talk about their experiences of racism and ethnic discrimination in legal proceedings and what strategies exist to counteract these contradictions. The focus is on the judges' presentation of their own stories about anticipating derogatory treatment of a defendants and what is done organizationally to counteract these biases. Furthermore, the study and analysis of the empirical material is based on Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework, where the central concepts of the study have been limited to Social Field and Capital, as well as Erving Goffmans Dramaturgical Perspective. This choice of theory’s strives to leave room to see what significance language, education, ethnicity, external attributes, social performance and body language can affect both the defendant in the trial but also the judges' own attitude to the case. To find out this, qualitative semi-structured interviews with lay judges from the District Court and the Court of Appeal were conducted.
The study shows that the lay judges believe that the Swedish legal system is not a free zone from either racialization or ethnic discrimination, but that these biases in the judicial process are mainly shown "behind closed doors", as during the deliberation. Therefore, the analysis of the results has resulted in a strong connection to Erving Goffman's concepts of frontstage and backstage. The lay judges' frontstage is the courtroom, in which they need to put on a mask to displace uncomfortable and difficult thoughts, feelings, values and emotions. Their backstage is during the deliberations where they are allowed to take off their masks and be more outspoken, show emotions, ask questions and judge according to personal as well as political values and opinions.}},
author = {{Flodin, Emma}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{ETHNIC BIASES AND RACIALIZATION IN SWEDISH JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS - A qualitative study regarding lay judges’ narratives on Ethnic Discrimination and Racialization in judicial proceedings}},
year = {{2021}},
}