PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
During the COVID-19 pandemic, problem-solving courts adopted virtual hearings. We conducted an online nationwide survey with a convenience sample of court staff to elicit their perceptions of court participants\' attendance, engagement, willingness to talk, and ability to form connection with judges during in-person versus virtual hearings. Sign tests compared ordinal ratings for perceptions of court participant outcomes during in-person versus virtual hearing modalities, and for audiovisual technology versus audio-only technology. The final analysis included 146 staff. Staff felt that during in-person hearings judges could form closer relationships with participants, quality of information exchanged was higher, and participants were more willing to talk. Staff rated attendance as high regardless of the modality. Staff felt participant engagement was higher with audiovisual technology than audio-only technology. Our results suggest that staff have concerns about effects of virtual hearings on court participant engagement and ability to form relationships with judges. Courts should address these potential negative effects of virtual hearings. We are concerned that staff perceived participants more negatively when participants used audio-only versus audiovisual technology, because technology access could be associated with participant demographic characteristics. Further research is needed to examine court participant perceptions and outcomes.
摘要：
在COVID-19大流行期间，解决问题的法院采用了虚拟听证会。我们在全国范围内进行了一项在线调查，方便了法院工作人员的样本，以引出他们对法院参与者的看法。订婚,愿意说话,以及在面对面和虚拟听证会期间与法官建立联系的能力。符号测试比较了面对面与虚拟听证方式期间对法院参与者结果的感知的顺序等级，以及视听技术与纯音频技术的对比。最终分析包括146名员工。工作人员认为，在亲自听证期间，法官可以与参与者建立更密切的关系，信息交流质量更高，参与者更愿意交谈。无论采用哪种方式，员工都将出勤率定为很高。工作人员认为，视听技术的参与者参与度高于纯音频技术。我们的结果表明，工作人员担心虚拟听证会对法院参与者的参与以及与法官建立关系的能力的影响。法院应解决虚拟听证的这些潜在负面影响。我们担心，当参与者使用纯音频技术与视听技术时，工作人员对参与者的看法更加消极，因为技术访问可能与参与者的人口统计特征有关。需要进一步的研究来检查法院参与者的看法和结果。
