Stage One: Three Brief Ethnographies
Based upon your readings of Goffman and Blackboard selections on writing field notes, your fieldwork assignment is to visit 2 different New York City courts and 1 Federal Court. Based upon your notes and class discussions, you are required to report back your observations in three 5-page papers; one for each court. You should plan to spend 2 to 3 hours on each observation - the approximate length of either a morning session or afternoon session. Also, keep in mind that all persons entering the courthouse must go through a magnetometer. Please arrive in time to allow for security screening.
At anytime, the judge or other court officials might inquire about you observing. Remember to identify yourself as a student. Most court hearings are public but some are closed for the preservation of the rights of some parties. You can always slip into a different courtroom!
Stage Two: A Comparative Ethnographic Analysis
Assess to what degree your own court observations are in line with Steve Bogira's observations as presented in his book, Courtroom 302. Be sure to attend to the ritualistic elements that sustain social organization as discussed by Goffman. Keep in mind this it is this organization that sustains social reality and the production of social order in everyday life. Then, with class discussions in mind on the role of criminology in relation to the sociology of law, make sure to reflect on how your experiences in the legal institution (as a realization of the philosophy of law) relate to the organization of your own experience of social life. Remember that the word "experience" used here has a specific sociological meaning, not that one time with your friends by the lake, but rather the manner in which one can speak of and be understood to be referring to that one time with your friends by the lake.