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Piercing the Veil of Statewide Data: The Case of Vanishing Trials in North Carolina
Author(s) -
Moog Robert
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of empirical legal studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.529
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1740-1461
pISSN - 1740-1453
DOI - 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2009.01140.x
Subject(s) - state (computer science) , south carolina , jury , political science , public administration , law , computer science , algorithm
Marc Galanter's 2003 report to the ABA on the declining rate of trials in federal and state courts has generated a good deal of discussion. This article adds to that literature by narrowing the focus to the fate of trials in one state (North Carolina) between 1987 and 2005, and then moving to the next level to determine if statewide trends are replicated in the six largest counties in the state. Regarding jury trials, the downward trends are quite consistent at both the state and county levels, but bench trials present a far more complex picture. Although the status of bench trials in North Carolina remains unclear, the research emphasizes the importance of the data‐collection process, and the necessity of looking to the local level to understand the complexities underlying what can appear as statewide trends.