What determines the trust of immigrants in criminal justice institutions in Europe?

Abstract

This study examines whether the confidence of immigrants in European countries in criminal justice institutions can be explained by two counteracting processes: expectations formed in the country of origin and discrimination experienced in the residence country. The study draws on the pooled waves of the European Social Survey (2002-8), comparing first-and secondgeneration immigrants from 66 countries of origin with natives in 21 residence countries. Multilevel regressions are employed to examine the relationship between confidence in institutions and proxy variables for the processes under study. The data strongly support the hypothesis that the high confidence of first-generation immigrants can be explained by frames of reference formed in the country of origin. Some, but limited, support is also found for the impact of discrimination.

Political Trust as Modest Expectations: <i>Exploring Immigrants’ Falling Confidence in Swedish Political Institutions</i>

“…Yet, there is evidence, indicating that migrants compare experiences and situations in the new country with the country of origin, affecting evaluations of the present situation. For instance, scholars have noted that immigrants tend to judge moral behaviour and treatment by authorities, as well as the trustworthiness of criminal justice institutions relative to standards of their old country (Reese 2001;Menjívar & Bejarano 2004;Röder & Mühlau 2012b). Such findings, we contend, make the support for the expectations hypothesis as for political institutions even more reasonable.…”

Police legitimacy among immigrants in Europe: Institutional frames and group position

“…Röder and Mühlau (2012) found that having moved from a more to a less corrupt country was associated, on average, with more favourable views of police, while Bradford et al (2016) found that immigrants from Africa and South Asia (many of whom will have come from countries with highly corrupt police and political systems) living in England and Wales trusted the police significantly more than non-immigrants. Nannestad et al (2014) report similar findings, and conclude that better 'quality' institutions in destination countries (in their case, Denmark) is linked to higher levels of trust in those institutions among immigrants from countries with lower quality institutions.…”

“…Three measures were used to tap into how change in institutional context might shape immigrants assessments of police legitimacy. The first concerned corruption and the rule of law, and here we draw on, and extend, the measure used by Röder and Mühlau (2012). If, as they argue, "immigrants compare the institutional reality of the host country with their experiences of institutions in the home country as a reference point" (ibid: 376), it seems likely that the 'institutional reality' of law and corruption is a particularly salient factor in relation to the police.…”

“…Strikingly, analysis of large-scale surveys such as the European Social Survey (ESS) (Röder and Mühlau 2012), the Crime Survey of England and Wales (Bradford et al 2016), and World Values Survey (Nannestad et al 2014) suggests that, at least in some contexts, immigrants' views of the police can actually be more positive on average than those of their native-born counterparts. One possible explanation focuses on the change in 'institutional frames' that immigrants experience as they move from origin to destination countries.…”

“…One possible explanation focuses on the change in 'institutional frames' that immigrants experience as they move from origin to destination countries. In a paper that foreshadowed the current contribution, Röder and Mühlau (2012) found that across 21 European countries, immigrants who had moved from high to low corruption countries had higher levels of trust in the police than the native-born (see also Röder and Mühlau 2011): immigrants may judge the trustworthiness of the police in the destination country partly on the basis of the (un)trustworthiness of the police in the origin country. This paper advances the literature in three ways.…”