Title Information
Title
The Dismissal: An Analysis of the Democratic Effects of Removal from a Jury Box
Abstract
Alexis de Tocqueville famously asserted that the American jury system acts a pathway for ordinary citizens to participate in democratic systems beyond the judiciary. While there has been some research in the past 50 years testing this effect, these works focus on studying the effects of a jury empanelment on post-service civic engagement. Little has been done, however, to test the civic effects of a jury dismissal on civic behaviors and attitudes. This work examines de Tocqueville’s ideas as they relate to dismissed jurors using a mixed methods approach. Regression analysis of post-service voting and confidence rates reveal that individuals who are shown the court room and dismissed do not experience significant demobilizing effects. At the same time, interviews with 34 dismissed jurors at the Rhode Island State Court House demonstrate that there is a significant financial burden to the jury selection process. While people were relieved to have been dismissed for financial reasons, many were disappointed that they could not serve. These seemingly paradoxical results suggest that, despite the obvious financial burdens to civic engagement, there is a strong desire to participate in the political sphere that the current selection process fails to recognize.
Name: Personal
Name Part
Crawford, Kendall
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/cre")
creator
Name: Personal
Name Part
Cheit, Ross
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ths")
First reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Weir, Margaret
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ths")
Second reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Testa, Paul
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ths")
Third reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. Public Policy
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2019
Type of Resource
text
Physical Description
digitalOrigin
born digital
Language
Language Term: Text (ISO639-2B) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2.html", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/eng")
English
Note: thesis
Senior thesis (AB)--Brown University, 2019
Note (displayLabel="Concentration")
Public Policy
Genre (aat)
theses
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/985072")
Topic
Jury
Identifier: DOI
10.26300/ysnb-4w70
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
Collection is open for research.