A Behavior Based Evaluation Instrument for Judges

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1995

Publication Title

Justice System Journal

Publisher

National Center for State Courts

Volume

18

Abstract

The belief that judicial performance should be evaluated has gained increasing momentum. A number of states have used surveys of attorneys as a primary source of information about judicial performance. This research reports on an effort to create a survey that would be easily administered while at the same time providing information free from bias. Using a procedure developed in other occupational fields, the researchers developed an instrument that uses "critical incidents" of actual judicial behavior as benchmarks for scales to measure judicial performance across six dimensions. Each of the six dimensions consists of five items. The instrument was field tested and shown to be free from bias (i.e. Halo/Horn and leniency effects) often found in evaluation instruments.

Keywords

Job evaluation; Judges – Rating of; Lawyers; Mail Surveys

Disciplines

Community-Based Research | Policy History, Theory, and Methods | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Social Psychology | Sociology

Language

English

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