As communities face unrest and protest because of perceived racial bias and decreased trust and confidence in the criminal justice system, it is critical to explore mechanisms that foster institutional legitimacy. Voice is a central element in the procedural justice framework because it is anticipated to promote process control as well as a shared understanding between institutions and communities. As a concept, however, voice is undertheorized. Measures of voice used in legitimacy research may result in oversimplification of the concept, not fully capturing the struggles disadvantaged people face in trying to exercise influence in the court system. Through the use of rich data from qualitative interviews with youth and families involved in the juvenile justice system and in‐depth observations of juvenile court events, we explore what voice is, the mechanisms through which people try to assert voice, and how voice matters in the legal process. Respondents sought voice for many reasons, including to validate their experiences, to affirm their membership in a community, and to assert concerns about perceived police misconduct. Contrary to traditional conceptualizations of voice as a static event (e.g., having voice or not having voice), voice was a process of negotiating dialogue between court officials and court participants throughout the legal process.

中文翻译：

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声音在法律程序中的作用*

由于由于种族偏见以及对刑事司法系统的信任度和信任度下降，社区面临动荡和抗议，因此探索促进机构合法性的机制至关重要。声音是程序正义框架中的核心要素，因为它有望促进流程控制以及机构与社区之间的共识。但是，从概念上讲，语音的理论不足。合法性研究中使用的声音测量方法可能会导致概念的过于简化，而无法完全捕捉弱势群体在试图行使法院系统影响力方面所面临的斗争。通过使用与青少年司法系统中涉及的青年和家庭进行的定性访谈中的丰富数据，以及对青少年法院事件的深入观察，我们探索了什么是声音，人们尝试主张声音的机制，以及声音在法律程序中的重要性。受访者之所以寻求发言权，有多种原因，包括验证其经历，确认其在社区中的成员身份以及对被认为的警察不当行为表示担忧。与将语音作为静态事件（例如，有声音或没有声音）的传统概念相反，声音是整个法律程序中法院官员与法院参与者之间对话对话的过程。