Learning from Journalism
17 Pages Posted: 31 May 2006
Abstract
Academics in criminal justice frequently lament the state of crime journalism in United States today - and with good reason. Sensational, superficial and often misleading reporting of a few unrepresentative cases distorts the public's view of criminal justice in serious ways. But the opposite is also true: recent years have also seen some superb crime reporting, from which experts as well as the public can learn much. In this review I focus on Steve Bogira's Courtroom 302. The book provides an important reality check on criminal adjudication in a major American city today. It also represents a unique resource for the legal educator. Its exploration of individual and social character as revealed in the legal process in a single criminal courtroom may provide an important counterweight to law school's emphasis on rules and principles in criminal adjudication. The stories told here teach about the experience of law and the relationality of its practice in a way that traditional legal materials cannot.
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