Public Confidence in the Police and Courts

Interest in public confidence in legal authorities has experienced a virtual explosion over the past 20 years. One of the important reasons is that public trust in legal authorities is often cited by policymakers to validate the legitimacy of existing practices and policies. Despite its importance, little attention has been given to analyze the global attitude toward the police and courts. Accordingly, Leechaianan strives to bridge the gap in the literature by analyzing the impacts of both individual- and country-level predictors on confidence in the police and courts across 36 nations. The main purpose of this study is to understand how five types of variables (i.e. country characteristics, demographic, social-bond, attitudinal, and media-consumption variables) influence confidence in the police and courts in a macro level. This book provides very informative discussion regarding what factors do and do not matter to the police and courts. Finally, the in-depth analysis should help shed some light on this specific topic and be useful to professionals in law enforcement area, students, scholars, and anyone else who may be interested in criminal justice.