Criminal Courts

Theme of the Collection

The social organization of criminal courts is the theme of this collection of articles.

Contributions to Social Organization Levels

The volume provides contributions to three levels of social organization in criminal courts:

(1) the macro-level involving external economic, political and social forces (Joachim J. Savelsberg; Raymond Michalowski; Mary E. Vogel; John Hagan and Ron Levi);

(2) the meso-level consisting of formal structures, informal cultural norms and supporting agencies in an interlocking organizational network (Malcolm M. Feeley; Lawrence Mohr; Jo Dixon; Jeffrey T. Ulmer and John H. Kramer);

(3) the micro-level consisting of interactional orders that emerge from the social discourses and categorizations in multiple layers of bargaining and negotiation processes (Lisa Frohmann; Aaron Kupchik; Michael McConville and Chester Mirsky; Bankole A. Cole).

Editorial Introduction

An editorial introduction ties these levels together, relating them to a Weberian sociology of law.