What is Ethnography and how does it help jury selection?
What is ethnography?
The act of conducting ethnographic research, or engaging in ethnography, is “simply stated…the study of people in their own environment through the use of methods such as participant observation and face-to-face interviewing.” The Greek etymology of the word reveals its purpose - “ethnos” = people and “graphia = writing, literally translating to “writing about a people.” It can be an umbrella to a more specific tool, qualitative research, which looks to collect non-numerical data in order to gain an understanding of an individual’s social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs and motivations.
What can I do with ethnographic research?
Ethnographic research is useful to all stages of case preparation, but most crucially, to preparing for jury selection and identifying danger points in your potential jurors. By consulting researched local data, you can gain an understanding of the average education, income, employment, social and religious affiliations. Even more refined data includes, social media trends, google search trends, internet and phone provider coverage and access, voter registration, military service, public employment, and grant fund recipients.
What this social context can give you is perspective on how to manage the story of your case. When the stakes are as high as life in prison, or a business-ending judgment, a skilled advocate will seek to control all that can reasonably be controlled - which includes how, when, and what information is promoted or shared about the case.
For example, a rural business owner (Brad Business) calls you for representation on accusations of fraud, embezzelment, and drug trafficking. Brad Business is specifically seeking an out-of-county attorney because of the temperature in his community. Brad needs help not just managing his criminal accusations and potential civil suits, but also to protect his other businesses and employees who are suffering from harassment and online brigading.
A skilled advocate will know to conduct a thorough community scope by way of collecting ethnographic research and conducting research of their own. This includes: online investigation and tracking of brigading and harassment; google search alerts; local news, blogs, journals, and social media pages; interviews of local individuals like county clerks, teachers, coffee shop employees, and others unrelated to the case itself.
Based on the assessment of this data, the advocate can construct a defense that will speak to the moral imperatives of the community, so that even in the worst case scenario where a factual defense is not possible, a social redemption is feasible.
Where can I find ethnographic research?
Sources for reliable ethnographic research include:
PubMed: articles and literature reviews.
Google Scholar: articles, literature reviews, some full journals.
USA Census Data: the improvements to this website and data presentation impress!
Simon Fraser’s Find Ethnography Help Page: gold standard in search guides.
