Unpacking the Black Box: An Ethnographic Approach to Study Prosecutors’ Offices

Much of a prosecutor’s work is not transparent. As a result, conducting an ethnographic project about institutional management and cultural change within a prosecutor’s office can be challenging. To trace organizational culture, a researcher has to document and understand the “shared meanings, assumptions, norms and values” governing individual prosecutors’ work behaviors. Yet the common tools scholars employ for measuring culture—interviews, surveys, and questionnaires—are insufficient because they provide only static snapshots of institutional culture. My presentation proceeds in three parts. First, I will discuss what it means to conduct an ethnographic project in a prosecutor’s office and how such an approach opens up new opportunities for prosecutorial reform. Second, using the recent, progressive prosecution movement in the United States as an example, I will explain how ethnographic studies can help reform-oriented chief prosecutors better understand their organizations and offer strategic approaches for institutional management. My argument will be that it is essential to accurately profile office culture with empirical data so that prosecutors do not end up relying on unrealistic ideals and intuitions that tell us more about their misconstrued visions. Finally, I will discuss how ethnographic research can generate much-needed knowledge to facilitate a better normative debate about prosecutorial ethics and the three fundamental norms (i.e., accountability, fairness, and transparency) of modern prosecution.