Trust and Confidence in Media and Criminal Justice Institutions

Abstract

In every society, the main purpose of the criminal justice system is to maintain social order and ensure that citizens comply with the law. To do this effectively, the police and court systems need citizen cooperation and obedience, and willingness to assist with criminal investigations and report crimes to the police. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between confidence in the media and confidence in the criminal justice institutions in South Africa. The study tests two objectives: to assess South Africans’ level of confidence in the police and courts, and to determine whether citizens’ levels of confidence in both the print and televised media will influence their levels of confidence in the police, courts, and in the criminal justice system in general. Utilizing data from the World Values Survey, results reveal a significant and positive relationship between confidence in the media and confidence in the criminal justice institutions. Policy implications of this observation are discussed.

Citizens’ attitudes toward legal authorities in Brazil: Examining the impact of crime, insecurity, and corruption

“…Citizens' who expressed high trust in the media, indicated that institutions in Brazil are legitimate, court is fair, and reported high trust in the police. This observation is consistent with prior efforts that have examined the relationship between the two variables in Africa (Boateng & Kaiser, 2019) and Asia (Leechaianan et al, 2012;Wu, 2014). Assumptions from the cognitive response theory provide a perfect explanation for this behavior in Brazil.…”

Measuring the quality of the Working Alliance in Flemish community supervision practice: A validation study of the Working Alliance for Mandated Clients Inventory

“…These findings support the paramount importance of trust as a feature of the WA in a mandated context (Menger, 2018). However, it should be noted that – while it is indeed built within a specific WA – trust remains a complex concept that is influenced by many factors; for example, personal experiences or the experiences or significant others (Fagan and Tyler, 2005) and cultural background (Boateng and Kaiser, 2019).…”

Exploring Social Media’s Impact on Societal Perceptions of Police Legitimacy and Cooperation

“…Individuals utilize vicariously gathered information to evaluate law enforcement legitimacy (Perry et al, 2019). Therefore, citizens who do not have contact with courts, the criminal justice system, or law enforcement must consider what other factors might influence their confidence in the criminal justice system (Boateng & Kaiser, 2019). People who never or rarely engage with law enforcement officers can shape their perspectives of police from what they have seen in the media.…”

“…People gain their knowledge of social reality from four sources: social groups or institutions (schools or churches), the media, significant others (family and friends), and personal experiences (Alitavoli & Kaveh, 2018;Boateng & Kaiser. 2019).…”