Social Relationships and the Curriculum: Sources of Friction in an Urban Community, District Courts

Abstract

IN AN EARLIER article, the author discussed the possible signifi cance of socially unacceptable behavior for determining the content of the elementary school curriculum in the social studies. ** Those areas. included lost and found property, slander and freedom of speech, tres pass, and negligence in certain types of highway accidents. An addition al area, sources of friction in rural communities, has been explored by Saale. 2 Most of the early studies utilized cases carried to higher courts, were based on supreme court decisions, and compared the concepts of students at various grade levels with the decisions of the courts. The present article presents the evidence from one part of a compre hensive survey of the cases passing through courts at all levels. 3 The tabulation of cases for the following courts have been completed: (1) county, (2) justice of the peace, (3) probate, (4) juvenile, and (5) police or corporation. The tabulations of cases carried to the supreme court are as yet unfinished. The tabulations in the present report rep resent a complete count of the 8,855 civil (160 different classifications) and criminal (fifty-eight different classifications) cases in the Fifty third, Ninety-eighth, and 126th District Courts, Travis County, Aus tin, Texas, 1951-1952, inclusive (see Tables I and II). 4 Other articles deal with the tabulations for courts other than district. The earliest attempt to determine sources of friction that the writer has found through a tabulation of court cases seems to be that of Alder man. 5 However, his count involved cases in a community of approxi mately 12,000 population, whereas the present count was made in* a community of approximately 160,000 population. Tables I and H show the complete tabulation of civil and criminal cases before those filed by or against the State of Texas by or against citizens residing outside of Travis County were withdrawn from the count. The complexity of the case classifications becomes apparent when controversies involving the State of Texas are considered at the district court level. Examples of cases which were deleted are the state tax suits (if the citizen resided outside of Travis County), forfei ture of charter, and Railroad Commission suits. The writer i s cogni zant that certain of the present classifications require further modifica