Social Class Bias of Practicing Attorneys

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of a criminal defendant's social class on private practicing attorneys' evaluations of an interview between a criminal defendant and his attorney. 50 practicing attorneys, as volunteer subjects, rated an artificially constructed transcript of an interview relating to the defendant's arrest. Ratings were based on 10 Likert-type scales measuring personality variables and legal sophistication of the defendant. One-half of the subjects rated the transcript with a lower-class social history appended; the other half rated the same transcript with a middle-class social history appended. The evaluations of the defendant were not influenced by the defendant's social class.