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Much Obliged: Volunteering, Normative Activities, and Willingness to Serve on Juries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Marc A. Musick ,
Mary R. Rose ,
Sarah Dury  and
Roger P. Rose
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Abstract

Although compulsory, many people treat jury duty as voluntary. This article examines the conceptual and empirical links between participating in voluntary activity and stated willingness to serve on a jury. We also consider the role of engaging in other normative behaviors. Analysis of 1,304 US citizens in the Survey of Texas Adults showed an initial relationship between volunteering and willingness to serve, net of personal resources, prior jury service, and prosocial attitudes. However, indicators of normative activities (voting, contacting elected officials, keeping up with medical appointments, and avoiding bars) largely eliminated this relationship. People who volunteered some, but not too much, were more willing; an analysis of domains of volunteering showed that engaging in public service work predicted willingness. Results suggest that the public service and duty‐based nature of jury participation should be emphasized to understand willingness to serve and to consider novel ways to increase summons responses.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , Spring 2015 , pp. 433 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2015 

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Footnotes

The data used in this article were made available (in part) by the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin and by funding provided by the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service and the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Neither the collector of the data nor any of these entities bears any responsibility for the analyses and interpretations presented here. We also thank Valerie Hans, and this journal's reviewers and editor, for helpful comments on earlier drafts.

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