Confidence in the Criminal Justice System: Does Experience Count?

Posted: 27 Apr 2009

See all articles by Steven Van de Walle

Steven Van de Walle

KU Leuven - Department of Political Science; Erasmus University Rotterdam - Department of Public Administration

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: May 2009

Abstract

Public confidence in the Criminal Justice System has been found to be relatively low compared to public confidence in many other institutions. This lack of confidence has been attributed, in part, to low public understanding of how the courts work. Greater experience with the justice system is often suggested as a way to increase confidence in its fairness, efficiency and effectiveness. In this article, therefore, we first explore the difficulties of assessing attitudes towards the Criminal Justice System and then, distinguishing between four types of experience, we use a multivariate model controlling for socio-demographic characteristics to map the effect of experience on evaluations of the fairness, efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal courts. Experience is found to have only a marginal effect on these evaluations.

Suggested Citation

Van de Walle, Steven and Van de Walle, Steven, Confidence in the Criminal Justice System: Does Experience Count? (May 2009). The British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 49, Issue 3, pp. 384-398, 2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1389105 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azp001

Steven Van de Walle (Contact Author)

Erasmus University Rotterdam - Department of Public Administration ( email )

3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands
0031 10 408 2518 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.stevenvandewalle.eu

KU Leuven - Department of Political Science ( email )

Public Management Institute
Van Evenstraat 2A
B-3000 Leuven
Belgium
+32 16 323614 (Phone)
+32 16 323611 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.publicmanagementinstitute.be

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