Public Image of Courts, 1977: General Public Data

This data collection and its companion study, PUBLIC IMAGE OF COURTS, 1977: SPECIAL PUBLICS DATA (ICPSR 7704), were undertaken to explore attitudes toward courts and justice. These surveys sought to measure perceptions of and experiences with local, state, and federal courts as well as general attitudes toward the administration of justice and legal actors. The general objectives of the studies were to (1) determine levels of public knowledge of courts, (2) test reactions to situations that might, or might not, prompt recourse to courts, (3) determine the incidence, nature, and evaluations of court experience, (4) describe and account for evaluations of court performance, (5) indicate attitudes toward legal actors, and (6) indicate reactions to alternative means of dispute resolution. Two samples were drawn: a national sample of the general public and a "special publics" sample of judges, lawyers, and community leaders (ICPSR 7704). The 1,931 respondents in the general public sample were interviewed in person by the National Consumer Field Staff of Yankelovich, Skelly, and White, Inc.

本数据集及其配套研究《1977年法院公众形象：特殊群体数据（Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research，简称ICPSR 7704）》旨在探究公众对法院与司法的态度。本系列调查旨在衡量公众对地方、州级及联邦法院的认知与体验，同时考察公众对司法行政与法律从业者的整体态度。本研究的总体目标包括：1）评估公众对法院的认知程度；2）测试公众对可能或不可能引发诉讼的情境的反应；3）厘清司法体验的发生情况、性质与评价；4）描述并解释公众对法院履职表现的评价；5）呈现公众对法律从业者的态度；6）反映公众对替代性纠纷解决方式的反应。本次研究共抽取两类样本：一是覆盖全体公众的全国性样本，二是由法官、律师与社区领袖组成的“特殊群体”样本（ICPSR 7704）。公众样本中的1931名受访者由扬克洛维奇、斯基利与怀特公司（Yankelovich, Skelly, and White, Inc.）的全国消费者实地调查团队进行了面对面访谈。