Monitoring and evaluating trust in Justice in Europe Workshop: 14-16 October, Mavrovo

1. Monitoring and evaluating trust in Justice in Europe
Workshop: 14-16 October, Mavrovo

2. Criminal Justice System’s assessment approaches
•Assessing crime policies by reference to levels of crime measured by
•crime statistics
•national surveys of victimization
•the International Crime Victimisation Survey
•New approaches
•Assessment of the effectiveness of the CJS taking into account broader criteria relating to people’s trust in the institutions of justice, and by the extent to what citizens confer these institutions with the legitimacy that they need to exist and operate effectively
•Policies based on trust between citizens and institutions - key precondition for sustainable development and principles of good governance and social justice and solidarity although policy-making still does not make use of indicators measuring trust in institutions
•

3. Concept of public trust in institutions - background
•Public trust - directly related to the quality of life
• objective living conditions
• subjective perception of well-being
• degree of solidarity, social cohesion and stability in society
• Factors affected public trust
•level of economic development (GDP growth) and of modernization (urbanization, life expectancy, industrial development, education levels of the general population, etc)
•democracy (political rights and civil freedoms) and good governance (government and public spending, law and order, corruption index)
• development of civil society and social heterogeneity

4. Scientific Indicators of Confidence in Justice: Tools for Policy Assessment (EURO-JUSTIS Project funded under the EC FP7)
•System of indicators for assessing confidence in the CJS developed in 2010-2011 by experts in law, sociology and criminology from several research centers(incl. CSD) in 7 EU countries
•Public trust indicators reflect two interrelated aspects of public opinion
•Trust in the police and courts in terms of
•i) efficiency,
•ii) compliance with rules and procedures, i.e. procedural fairness, and iii) impartial treatment irrespective of citizens’ social, economic, or political status, i.e. distributive fairness
•Opinions about the legitimacy of these institutions, i.e. people’s perceptions regarding the enforcement and observation of the fundamental principles of democracy and the rule of law

5. Social indicators of trust and legitimacy
•Measure public trust in (separately) the police and courts:
•Trust in effectiveness
•Trust in procedural fairness
•Trust in distributive fairness
•Measure perceived legitimacy of (separately) the police and courts:
•Obligation to obey/accept decisions
•Moral alignment
•Corruption (legality of action)

6. The project’s outcomes
•Comprehensive methodology, results in developing a system of indicators on trust and legitimacy
•Cognitive interviews to test the concepts’ reliability (UK & BG)
•Statistically proved concepts of trust and legitimacy
•Pilot Surveys in Bulgaria, France, Italy, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic (2010)
•Euro-Justis module -> ESS 2010 Pilot Survey (UK & BG)
•EURO-JUSTIS in the ESS 2011: a comparative study across 28 countries
•Continuation of the project efforts - FIDUCIA project: New European Crimes and Trust-based Policy( EC FP7)

7. EURO-JUSTIS BG Pilot Survey – main findings
• ESS Round 3 / 2006 & Round
4 / 2009
• European Quality of Life
Survey 2003 & 2007
• European Value Survey 2008
• Surveys within the
Corruption Monitoring
System in Bulgaria (CSD)
1999 – 2007
43.6
35.8
16.4
4.2
18.7
36.3
34.0
11.0
good job neither good
nor bad job
bad job don’t know
police courts
Source: EUROJUSTIS Pilot Survey, October 2010
Assessments of court/police performance in Bulgaria (%)

8. Effectiveness of the police
32.8
35.3
14.3
23.3
88.6
66.6
64.7
96.8
85.0
76.1
11.3
3.1
has been the victim of a burglary
in the last 5 years
know s someone in the same
area w ho has been the victim of
a burglary in the last 5 years
during the last 12 months have
felt w orried about having their
home broken into and something
stolen
has been the victim of a
physical assault in the street by
a stranger in the last 5 years
know s someone in the same
area w ho has been the victim of
a physical assault in the street
by a stranger in the last 5 years
during the last 12 months has
felt w orried about being
physically attacked in the street
by a stranger
yes no
Fear of crime and crime victims (%)
Source: EUROJUSTIS Pilot Survey, October 2010
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0
88 (Don't know )
0 extremely unsuccessful
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 extremely successful
how successful do you think the police are at catching people w ho
commit house burglaries
how successful do you think the police are at preventing crimes?

9. Procedural fairness of courts
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0
88 (Don’t know )
0 Never
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 Alw ays
How often do you think the courts make fair,
impartial decisions based on the evidence?
How often you think the courts make mistakes that
let guilty people go free?
Source: EUROJUSTIS Pilot Survey, October 2010
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0
Don't know
Disagree
strongly
Disagree
Neither agree
nor disagree
Agree
Agree strongly
The courts generally pass sentences that reflect the crime.

10. Distributive fairness of courts
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0
Don't know
Disagree strongly
Disagree
Neither agree nor
disagree
Agree
Agree strongly
The decisions and actions of the courts are unduly influenced
by pressure from political parties and politicians.
Courts generally protect the interests of the rich and powerful
above those of ordinary people.
7.2
18.5
72.7
1.6
0.0
20.0
40.0
60.0
80.0
100.0
Suppose tw o people - one rich, one
poor - each appear in court, charged
w ith an identical crime they did not
commit.
The rich person is
more likely to be
found guilty
The poor person is
more likely to be
found guilty
They both have the
same chance of
being found guilty
Don’t know

13. Main findings
•Of all the EU member states, Bulgaria is the country whose citizens are the least satisfied with the performance of the main government institutions and with criminal justice in Bulgaria – the police and courts
•The low public trust in the courts and police can also be accounted for by the high level of corruption in these institutions
•In terms of public policy-making, the low public confidence in the police and the courts affects negatively the reforms undertaken.
• A state’s penal policy can only produce results if sufficient attention is paid to trust, legitimacy, and security
•The lack of operational integration among the different institutions within the CJS has been multiplied by the media representation of institutional struggles and particularly, the by mutual accusations of ineffectiveness

14. Recommendations
•Adopting a system of indicators for the assessment of public trust in criminal justice which
•will allow to assess the criminal justice policies not only on the base of statistical data about the judicial system and the police, but also on regular monitoring of trust in these institutions
•will serve as an instrument for improved formulation of the problems faced by criminal justice institutions and for more effective monitoring of changes in public attitudes
•will make it possible to focus the attention on strategic issues and long-term policies in the area of security and justice not only on the national, but also on the European level

15. Recommendations (continued)
•Improve the interaction between the institutions of the criminal justice system and the public
•Raise public awareness by providing regular and accessible information about the results from the work of the judicial system and the police
•Build the capacity of the criminal justice institutions for communication and interaction with the general public
•Improve the coordination and interaction between the institutions of the criminal justice system in order to restrict mutual accusations of incompetence and inefficiency

16. For more information
Center for the Study of Democracy
www.csd.bg