NCJ Number
137521
Date Published
1991
Length
259 pages
Annotation
Focus in this text devoted to a critical analysis of legal need is on the most easily measured and objective aspects of the criminal process: outcomes.
Abstract
The text reviews the research and cites examples from prominent works on legal problems and legal needs to develop and test a conception of legal need in relation to defendants in the criminal process. Two conclusions are drawn based on the testing: the general assumption behind legal need as representation is "not proven" and that assumption does survive such testing in particularized settings. The individual judge emerges as the predominant influence in affecting court outcomes. Representation remains at most a second order influence and then only in combination with other second order variables in particular contextual patterns. 25 footnotes and 333 references