Court Room Environment Analysis Paper

The environment I chose to analyze was the Shiawassee County Circuit Court room. In order to enter the court room, you must push open the heavy wooden doors. Upon entering the court room, I noticed that half of the room was separated into theater style seating. The chairs were made from wood, but also medal support so that the chairs could not be moved, making them a fixed feature. There was a wooden gate also known as the bar separating the publics side from the actual court settings. The bar also served as a fixed feature. On the other side of the wooden gate there was two rectangle tables with two chairs that face north, towards the front of the room, the same direction that the theater seating section was facing. Slightly in front of the …show more content…
The door is always closed during trials or cases and at times the event may hold minimal people which helps give the perception that there is some privacy which usually helps the flow of conversations. However, there is also a lack of privacy that takes place. This is because all events in the court room are documented, word-for-word, and put into the records where others can look them up. The place also takes away privacy in the sense that any citizen can attend any court case and listen in. Therefore, there is a perceived sense that there is some privacy in the courtroom, however, that privacy can be very limited as those rights may have been somewhat lost due to the criminal activity that got the defendant in the position to attend court in the first place. The court room also has mixed perceptions when it comes to familiarity. This is because for the average citizen entering the court room can be very uncomfortable. The surroundings are not familiar, the procedure is not familiar, and all of that can affect communication behavior making it very “cautious and deliberate” according to chapter 8 (P.151). However, the court does try to make victims more comfortable despite being in a new setting. On the other hand, people who attend court regularly due to child support, crime, of work affiliations tend to become more familiar with the place. This is why an attorney is much more comfortable talking in a court setting than their clients tend to be. Other feelings that the court give involve spacing and perceptions of