12 Angry Men: Sociological Review on the Legal System

The legal system is one of the top institutions responsible for providing justice. It must be based on the principles of equality and impartiality. Every case should be executed meticulously and flawlessly. Well is it really so? Is it always possible to behave objectively in various events? In this article, we will do a sociological review of the movie of 12 Angry Men and try to find answers to these questions.

The Movie of 12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men is a Hollywood-based movie about the American legal system. It’s a production that aims to explain legal regulations and society was directed by Sidney Lumet in 1957.

In this legal system, a jury consists of twelve civilians who don’t know each other and have a clean criminal record. They are distinguished from different lines of business and age. They are also responsible to observe throughout the case. The conclusion of the case depends on voting for the defendant as guilty or not guilty either.

The discussion room (credit: anonymous/unknown)

However, if twelve votes are not obtained jointly as a result, it is desirable to continue the jury’s voting process until they come to a common decision.

12 Angry Men is a film based on this system. There is a discussion room with twelve jurors and the case of a young Latino boy who killed his father and lives in a slum, that’s all.

Eleven Against One 

It starts with the members who coming together to vote after observing the case, meet each other and then move on to the voting. In as little as five minutes, eleven “guilty” votes are obtained except a vote. Since this single vote won’t be ignored by the American legal system, the defendant can’t be sentenced to death for killing his father.

The 8th juror votes as not guilty (credit: anonymous/unknown)

The movie allows to find us somewhere between the systematicity of law and the complex structure of human nature. So much so that we arrive at the judgment that the young man is the murderer with the evidence at hand. However, the eighth member of the jury takes an opposing attitude towards the other members and saying, “It is not easy for me to kill a child.” From this moment, he delves into the case and makes inquiries about the environment in which the young man, his past, his socio-economic status, and what he might have killed his father for.

Although this situation is met with the reaction of the jurors who have already made their decision, they start questioning within themselves that human nature and life cannot be explained thoroughly.

Thus, a long and detailed analysis process starts with the personal characteristics of the defendant. These jurors, who are symbols of the twelve types of people that we may encounter frequently in society, admitting that they affected by each other. Here, the film also criticizes the jury and its qualifications in American law. Because these people look at the case as biased. And we find ourselves asking, “How correct is it to decide on social events objectively within the legal system?”

Sociological Review on the Legal System

That question makes us think about the jurors and how much they are affected by society and social norms in their own lives. This effect undoubtedly compromises the objectivity and systematicity of the law. This time, we ask the following question that falls due to sociology of law: Can individuals be judged systematically and objectively?

The more they ask these questions, the more jurors begin to change their decisions. They don’t see the case as a short task to be done immediately and get rid of, anymore. From the moment they come to this awareness, they find the young man not guilty with the help of a sociological point of view. The defendant is acquitted unanimously.

Bias of Law

The law is sublime but at the same time, it’s an institution that takes great responsibility, which can decide the individual’s death or life.

(credit: clearscale.com)

Apart from the American legal system, another issue that the film draws attention to is the scheme of American society in the 1950s. For example, the absence of any woman citizen in the jury or the ethnic identity of the defendant (Afro American, Latin, Asian, etc.). These prejudices are quite important hints to explain the bias of law.

As a result, the movie 12 Angry Men not only reveals the distinction between law and sociology but also their closeness.

RESOURCES

https://www.justice.gov/usao/justice-101/federal-courts

https://www.soclaw.lu.se/en/sociology-law-department/what-sociology-law