Making Waves Or Keeping the Calm? Analyzing the Institutional Culture of Family Courts Through the Lens of Social Psychology Groupthink Theory‪.‬

I. INTRODUCTION The study of the institutional culture of family courts offers a fascinating glance into the inner workings of courthouses. Yet, family court culture has been largely overlooked in legal and cultural literature. While there is no dearth of scholarly writing on the issue of culture, and a growing body of work on the culture of courthouses, (1) there is a paucity of literature pertaining to the specific organizational culture of family courts. (2) This article seeks to commence a meaningful dialogue concerning the organizational culture in family courts nationwide. It will utilize the social psychology theory of groupthink as a backdrop to hypothesize why family court culture is unique and worthy of further study and to suggest ideas for reform.