TY - CHAP
T1 - Access to civil justice and race, class, and gender inequality
AU - Sandefur, Rebecca L.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Access to civil justice is a perspective on the experiences that people have with civil justice events, organizations, or institutions. It focuses on who is able or willing to use civil law and law-like processes and institutions (who has access) and with what results (who receives what kinds of justice). This article reviews what we know about access to civil justice and race, social class, and gender inequality. Three classes of mechanisms through which inequality may be reproduced or exacerbated emerge: the unequal distribution of resources and costs, groups' distinct subjective orientations to law or to their experiences, and differential institutionalization of group or individual interests. Evidence reveals that civil justice experiences can be an important engine in reproducing inequalities and deserve greater attention from inequality scholars. However, the inequality-conserving picture in part reflects scholars' past choices about what to study: Much research has focused narrowly on the use of formal legal means to solve problems or advance interests, or it has considered the experience only of relatively resource-poor, lower status, or otherwise less privileged groups. Thus, we often lack the information necessary to compare systematically groups' experiences to each other or the impact of law to that of other means of managing conflicts or repairing harm.
AB - Access to civil justice is a perspective on the experiences that people have with civil justice events, organizations, or institutions. It focuses on who is able or willing to use civil law and law-like processes and institutions (who has access) and with what results (who receives what kinds of justice). This article reviews what we know about access to civil justice and race, social class, and gender inequality. Three classes of mechanisms through which inequality may be reproduced or exacerbated emerge: the unequal distribution of resources and costs, groups' distinct subjective orientations to law or to their experiences, and differential institutionalization of group or individual interests. Evidence reveals that civil justice experiences can be an important engine in reproducing inequalities and deserve greater attention from inequality scholars. However, the inequality-conserving picture in part reflects scholars' past choices about what to study: Much research has focused narrowly on the use of formal legal means to solve problems or advance interests, or it has considered the experience only of relatively resource-poor, lower status, or otherwise less privileged groups. Thus, we often lack the information necessary to compare systematically groups' experiences to each other or the impact of law to that of other means of managing conflicts or repairing harm.
KW - Alternative dispute resolution
KW - Institutions
KW - Law
KW - Lawyers
KW - Procedural justice
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=50649109161&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=50649109161&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134534
DO - 10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134534
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:50649109161
SN - 9780824322342
T3 - Annual Review of Sociology
SP - 339
EP - 358
BT - Annual Review of Sociology
A2 - Cook, Karen
A2 - Massey, Douglas
ER -