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Complainant Reactions to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Patricia Ward Crowe
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Abstract

This study examines the reactions of thirty complainants to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Complainant class is found to be the single most important explanatory factor; sex and race are not generally important when class is controlled. Higher class correlates with more idealistic motives for filing complaints, greater participation in and higher expectations about the process, better case outcomes, and a more negative evaluation of the Commission. No complainant obtained all the relief sought, but lower class complainants were generally happy with any favorable settlement, while higher class complainants were not. Complainants who seek to vindicate a principle, and therefore are less willing to compromise, find themselves in conflict with the pragmatic approach of most private attorneys (whose own economic interests may also be inconsistent with those of their clients) and with that of the MCAD (which adopts a generally pragmatic stance and prefers to conciliate rather than adjudicate, partly because it is so difficult and time consuming to prove discrimination based on unequal rather than unreasonable treatment). Symbolic and emotional factors determine complainant reactions more than case outcome.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , Winter 1978 , pp. 217 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

I am particularly indebted to Jane Collier for her comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I should also like to thank Richard L. Abel, Marc Galanter, Delia Gilson, Robert Kidder, and Eric Steele, for their comments on earlier drafts. Any errors are of course solely my own.

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