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Evidence as Partisanship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Mark Cooney
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Abstract

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This article analyzes the social origins of evidence. Applying Black's theory of partisan behavior to a variety of empirical materials indicates that the ability to attract supporting evidence is differentially distributed across social life. Thus, the amount of investigative effort legal officials put into a case, the willingness of people to testify, and the supportiveness of witness testimony all increase with the social status of the principal parties and the number of intimate ties they have. In addition, the quality, or credibility, of the evidence parties attract varies directly with their social status and the number of distant ties they have. Far from creating a factual component divorced from the social dimension of the case as is often believed, the evidentiary process helps to transform the attributes of high status and social ties into successful legal claims.

Type
A Status Theory of Evidence
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , 1994 , pp. 833 - 858
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

Earlier versions were presented at the 1991 and 1992 Law and Society Association annual meetings and to the Departments of Sociology of Purdue University and the University of Georgia. My thanks to all who offered comments, and to the following people who read and criticized previous drafts: M. P. Baumgartner, Donald Black, Ian Donovan, Paul Gallagher, John Herrmann, Allan Horwitz, Calvin Morrill, Martha Myers, Joachim Savelsberg, Barry Schwartz, Roberta Senechal de la Roche, James Tucker, and several anonymous reviewers.

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