Going To Court: Strategies Of Dispute Management In An American Urban Neighborhood

This article is about a single housing complex. Merry studies the diverse residents of this complex and observes how they resolve disputes amongst one another. She finds that there are differences in the use of violence and the use of courts across class, race, and gender lines.

To me the most interesting part of the article came right in the beginning when she says, "Courts come to serve simply as a sanction - a way of harassing an enemy - and an alternative to violence for those unable or unwilling to fight." She explains that courts are actually not as effective in resolving a dispute to either parties satisfaction as violence is. Violence provides an immediate and efficient means for one party to attain their desired outcome. In her study courts are only used when violence is either undesired by a party, or that party is unable to prevail in a violent altercation.

Merry also noted that many other means that were attempted tended to fall on deaf ears. For example when complaints were brought to the building manager, the managers would simply listen and hope that disputes would go away on their own. Very seldom was any authoritative action ever taken unless disputes were brought to court or violence was introduced. Perhaps we could learn from the Japanese method concerning the karaoke bars. Some sort of mediation program would certainly help to thwart this violence.