Pomerantz-Sanders2013

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Pomerantz-Sanders2013
BibType ARTICLE
Key Pomerantz-Sanders2013
Author(s) Anita Pomerantz, Robert E. Sanders
Title Conflict in the jury room: Averting acrimony and engendering it
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Justice
Publisher
Year 2013
Language
City
Month
Journal Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Volume 1
Number 2
Pages 141–164
URL Link
DOI 10.1075/jlac.1.2.01pom
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

A number of studies have shown how participants work to accomplish their goals in ways that minimize the possibility of acrimonious conflict. And yet acrimonious conflict does occur. This raises the issue of what circumstances and discursive moves engender acrimonious interactions and what circumstances and discursive moves avert them. We address this issue through the analysis of segments of a jury deliberation in the penalty phase of a murder trial. We followed the lead of writers who have tied the outbreak of an acrimonious interaction to the launching of a complaint that exposes a personal flaw in the target. We examine three cases where one juror made such a complaint about another. In two of those cases, an acrimonious interaction did not ensue, in the third it did. In comparing these cases, we found that much depends on whether the complainant’s wording and sequential placement of the complaint are mitigating or inflammatory, and much depends on whether the target juror resists the complaint in ways that engender acrimony or concedes and avoids engendering it.

Notes