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576 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 8 (2001)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0576 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE Judges, judicial employees, and others who work in or who enter our nation's courthouses often are the targets of hostile acts, including threats that are made and carried out-inappropriate communications, direct threats, approaches to attack, and actual attacks-and courtroom violence. Much of this violence is interpersonal, insofar as it is behavior by one person against another. However, some of it is symbolic: it is an attempt to make a general statement, using a public setting such as the courthouse as the plat- form. Within this context, threats or attacks against judicial officials, court employees, and court visitors or against the courthouse become symbolic attacks against the justice system as a whole. The following discussion is an overview of the different types of court- related violence. Although there is little firm research on which to draw to flesh out the various types and their causes, we nonetheless draw upon what we find to be the most solid, recommending along the way areas for further study. The following incidents provide vivid examples of the kinds ofviolence that are of concern and provide compelling reasons for marshalling resources to respond to it: - California Superior Court Judge Harold J. Haley was brutally murdered by two prisoners, James McClain and William Christmas, during their attempted escape from the Marin County Courthouse in San Rafael, California, on 7 August 1970. This single incident became the impetus for the establishment of the court security division in the U.S. Marshals Service. - In 1988, a man shot at a federal judge outside the judge's home in Pel- ham, New York, and, after pursuing the judge inside his house, shot and killed him. The man later shot himself. -In the early 1990s, in Plantation Key, Florida, a drunk-driving defen- dant pulled a gun, aimed it at the judge, and shot the courtroom bailiff who tried to intervene. - A Maryland circuit court judge was injured in a pipe-bomb explosion in December 1990. - On 5 May 1992, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, a man appearing in court for failing to pay child support shot and seriously wounded the judge. On the same day, in Clayton, Missouri, another man shot and killed his es- tranged wife and wounded her attorneys while waiting for his divorce hearing to begin. Also on the same day, a shooting took place in an Ala- bama courthouse during an argument between a woman and her brother- in-law. The brother-in-law was wounded in the shoulder. There are several more recent incidents: 8

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