Tell It to the Judge: Procedural Justice and a Community Court in Brooklyn

Based on direct observation inside and outside the courts and on interviews with one hundred residents and two hundred previous offenders, this article examines the performance of procedural justice in a community court in the Red Hook neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Results show that the community court is widely praised compared to the downtown Brooklyn courts and in sharp contrast to police enforcement. The content of this praise suggests that the community court cultivates legitimacy by treating people respectfully and by helping to mitigate problems with powerful institutions such as the police and the New York City Housing Authority. In light of these results, this article considers intertwined debates about procedural justice and how these ideas articulate with legal anthropologists’ understanding of hegemony.