Doing Court Ethnography: How I Learned to Study the Law in Action

Abstract

In this chapter, Carla Barrett chronicles how she came to do court ethnography, sharing insights on its many rewards and challenges. She argues how court ethnography can play an important role in our understandings of criminal justice systems and policies. The study of the day-to-day enactment of laws—of the “law in action”—is useful and necessary research because it helps reveal how the law actually functions regardless of its intent.