RT Article
T1 “Fighting the good fight”: why do public defenders remain on the job?
JF Criminal justice policy review
VO 31
IS 6
SP 939
OP 961
A1 Baćak, Valerio
A1 Lageson, Sarah Esther
A1 Powell, Kathleen
A2 Lageson, Sarah Esther
A2 Powell, Kathleen
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1768142890
AB In this article, we ask why public defenders remain on the job despite a number of unique and testing work-related challenges. To answer this question, we analyze original data collected through 87 semistructured interviews with public defenders from government, nonprofit, and appointed counsel systems across the United States. Participants explicated a set of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations salient to their decision to remain in public defense: interacting with clients, defending the Constitution, fighting social inequality, pursuing personal values, appreciating camaraderie with colleagues, and earning public sector benefits. We discuss how our findings relate to prior research, identify directions for future studies, and tentatively engage policy implications.
K1 Public defenders
K1 work motivations
K1 indigent defense
DO 10.1177/0887403419862317