Understanding and Controlling Violence Against the Judiciary and Judicial Officials

Abstract

According to every available measure, the American judiciary has been and is under attack. Yet there is no research that adequately conceptualizes or explains this violence. There are, however, a number of related ways of examining such violence that seem promising in their capacity to yield basic insights. They also seem promising with respect to their control implications. First, the concepts of institution and workplace provide useful general organizing ideas for advancing our understanding. Second, the environmental and rational-choice approaches provide useful, specific organizing ideas for understanding targeted judicial violence and are also potentially useful approaches for understanding associated nontargeted judicial violence. Third, the protective perspective provides an important way of thinking about and integrating the general and specific organizing ideas into protective operations that can enhance judicial safety. Finally, the protective perspective represents a blend of criminal justice and public health perspectives on the origins and control of violence.