The Public and the Justice System: Attitudes, Drivers and Behaviour - A Literature Review

2 Trends in Attitudes to the Justice System

Key findings

• In Scotland, as elsewhere, people's rating of different functions and different parts of the justice system vary, though confidence in all aspects of criminal justice system and police performance seems to have been increasing in recent years.
• The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey measures public attitudes to the justice system and the police across several indicators, but to date no analysis has been published which combines these indicators to provide an overall indicator, and there are no similar measures of attitudes to other parts of the justice system included in the survey.
• Evidence from England and Wales shows that people tend to be more confident in the police than other parts of the justice system, though for all parts of the system more people say they have confidence than those who say they do not.
• There is little Scottish evidence on people's views on the courts. In England and Wales and elsewhere it is often found that people view judges as out of touch, though views on their fairness and impartiality are more positive.
• Attitudes to sentencing are complex, and while the majority of people report that the courts are too lenient, the response to this short question does not accurately reflect the depth and range of views on this topic.
• There is not enough evidence on attitudes to the civil justice system to ascertain trends in this area.

2.1 Before discussing the various factors that may influence people's attitudes to the justice system and its composite parts, it is worth pausing to consider what the high-level trends and patterns are in attitudes to the justice system, both in Scotland and internationally. Scottish findings discussed here are mostly sourced from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), and comparable findings are sourced from the British Crime Survey (BCS) which covers England and Wales, and other international surveys. Clearly these trends do not tell us much by themselves about why they are as they are, but they give context to the remaining sections of this report.

The Criminal Justice System

2.2 It is relatively rare for surveys to ask about perceptions of the criminal justice system as a whole, instead there tends to be a focus on its constituent parts, usually the police, courts or sentencing practice. One exception to this is the SCJS, which asks respondents about their confidence in six aspects of the criminal justice system (see Page et al 2010: 125 & Scottish Government Social Research 2011: 105). There is a wide range in the proportion of people who say they are confident across these specific aspects of the system, with a high proportion of people saying they are very or fairly confident that the criminal justice system makes sure that everyone has access to the criminal justice system, and a majority of people saying that they are fairly or very confident that the justice system doesn't treat you differently depending on where you live, and that the system brings people who commit crime to justice. A lower proportion of people are very or fairly confident that the system provides a good standard of service for victims and witnesses, and deals with cases promptly and effectively. It should be noted that across all of these questions the survey has shown an increase in confidence over the past three years.

2.2.1 Unfortunately to date no analysis has been published which either combines these indicators to provide an overall indicator, or examines the relative importance of each of these questions to survey respondents' views of the system. These were new questions in 2008/09, so the findings cannot be traced any further back.

2.2.2 It is more common for surveys to ask people to rate their confidence in the different components of the justice system. The BCS and similar surveys in other countries routinely ask this question, and they find that people are most confident in the police, and tend to be least confident in courts (especially youth courts) and prisons (Bradford et al 2009; Roberts & Hough 2005c; Hough & Roberts 2004). In England and Wales the levels of confidence in the police have declined in recent years towards the lower levels of the other branches of the system, while rating of these other branches have remained steady (Hough & Roberts 2004). However, Hough & Roberts (2004) also point out that despite the lower rating for some branches, for every part of the criminal justice system the 'confidence balance' is positive, that is, a higher proportion of people say they are confident than not confident (Hough & Roberts 2004: 18).

The police

2.3 As with the criminal justice system as a whole, there is a tendency for surveys to focus on specific aspects of police performance when asking about confidence in the police. This is the case with the SCJS, which asks respondents about their confidence and rating of police performance across two sets of questions (see Page et al 2010 and Scottish Government Social Research 2011).

2.3.1 For the confidence questions which cover confidence in local police's ability to deal with incidents, solve crimes, respond quickly, catch criminals and prevent crime, there has been a small but significant increase in the public's confidence in the local police across all aspects compared with the previous survey years (Page et al 2010: 106; Scottish Government Social Research 2011: 91), and this was also true in England and Wales, as measured by the BCS (Scribbins et al 2010:14).

2.3.2 The police performance questions ask whether people agree with a range of statements, including whether local police would treat them with respect (a large majority agree), and whether local police listen to the concerns of local people (around half agree), though it is worth noting that (in 2009/10) a fifth neither agreed nor disagreed that the police listen to concerns of local people and a further fifth said they did not know whether they did or not. This suggests that some respondents may not have felt they had enough knowledge to provide an informed opinion on the police in the local area⁵ (Page et al 2010: 108). The impact of knowledge levels on attitudes will be explored in the main section of this report. For full results of these questions see Page et al 2010 and Scottish Government Social Research 2011.

2.3.3 Within Scotland in 2009/10, Northern Constabulary had the highest percentage of public confidence in their force for the second year, and three of the eight police forces in Scotland (Grampian, Lothian & Borders and Strathclyde) reported an increase across all questions on public confidence in the SCJS, compared to 2008/09. Fife was the only force that reported no improvement across all questions (Scottish Government 2011). There was around 10% variance in percentage of respondents agreeing across the forces for each aspect of performance. Clearly we cannot tell, without further analysis of existing data⁶ , how far this variance is due to police performance or other factors such as the kinds of neighbourhood covered by each force, the varying demographics of the people living in different force areas, or some other factors. Again, the main section of the report will explore possible explanatory factors for varying confidence in local police.

2.3.4 Further comparison over time from previous Scottish crime surveys shows that the level of satisfaction with Scottish local policing remained high in the 1980s (while in England and Wales it decreased) and the level of satisfaction increased between 1988 and 1993, before declining between the 1993 and 1996 surveys (Hale & Uglow 2000, exact figures not given).

2.3.5 The International Crime Victimisation Survey (ICVS) has asked respondents in countries and cities across the world (including Scotland) periodically since 1989 whether or not they believe the police are doing a good job. In most countries it has been found that the percentage of the population who believe the police do a good job has remained stable or has increased over the years, and that the rank order of countries has not changed much over the time period covered. Scotland was ranked 9^th in 2004/05 out of the 29 participating countries, just above Ireland and England and Wales, with 79% of respondents saying the police were doing a good or very good job, compared to an overall average of 70% (see van Dijk et al 2007). Analysis of other international surveys also find that the police are rated more highly in Western Europe generally, and the UK or Scotland specifically, than in other parts of the world, such as Latin America or Eastern Europe (see Ivcovic 2008; Fortete & Cesano 2009)⁷ .

2.3.6 A final point to make here is that the questions in these international surveys focused on general, or diffuse, support for the police when they asked for an overall evaluation of the police, whereas the SCJS asked people to rate specific aspects of performance. Brown & Benedict (2002), in their review of (mostly American) literature, found that several studies had found specific support for the police to be lower than diffuse support.

Courts and sentencing

2.4 The detailed questions reported in the SCJS on the police are not mirrored by equivalent questions about courts and judges⁸ . Drawing on a MORI survey and the BCS, Roberts and Hough (2005) point out (as above) that rating of the courts tends to be lower than ratings of the police in England and Wales, and as with police, there is variance in the levels of confidence people have across different court functions (Roberts & Hough 2005c: 73). Roberts and Stalans (1997) also point out that those who are positive about the police also tend to be positive about the courts (Roberts & Stalans 1997: 141), and Hough and Roberts (2004) add an international perspective, concluding from their review of the literature that there are negative views of the courts around the world, with particularly negative views found in the United States (Hough & Roberts 2004: 82).

2.4.1 There are two aspects of criminal courts which research tends to focus on, and these are perceptions of judges, and of sentencing. In terms of views on judges, research in Scotland in 2002 found that a large majority of survey respondents said they felt that judges and sheriffs were generally out of touch with what ordinary people think (17% thought they were 'in touch'). The same research involved focus groups, in which these sentiments were reflected, especially in relation to the age and social background of sheriffs and judges (Anderson et al 2002 section 3.2, see also Hutton 2005). This finding is consistent with research in England and Wales, and elsewhere (see Roberts & Hough 2005c), though Hough and Roberts point out that ratings of fairness or impartiality of judges are more positive (page 54).

2.4.2 In terms of trends in attitudes towards sentencing, this is a complex area, which will be the subject of a separate section later in this report. At the moment it will suffice to say that when survey respondents are asked about the leniency of the courts, in Scotland and elsewhere, the vast majority say that the courts are too lenient (e.g. Anderson et al 2002 section 3.5), however, when people are asked what sentence they would impose in hypothetical cases, responses tend to match the severity of real courts (see below for details).

2.4.3 Some research has also looked at attitudes towards particular sentence types, such as prison sentences and community sentences. Findings tend to be mixed, depending on the aspect of the sentence type examined (for example Hough & Roberts describe people being confident in prison's ability to contain prisoners, but not in its ability to rehabilitate and reduce reoffending (2005: 54)), and the type of case involved (especially whether it is a first or repeat offence, and whether there is violence involved). There appears to be a dearth of research into the fine as a penalty, but findings on perceptions of prison and community sentences can be found in the box below.

Perceptions of sentence types

Perceptions of Prison

Several studies have found that the public admit to knowing very little about prisons (Hutton 2005, Anderson et al 2002, Roberts & Hough 2005a) and what is known is often not direct but from media and fictional sources (Anderson et al 2002)

Studies have found people to be more confident and supportive of prison's ability to incapacitate, protect the public and punish, than confident in its ability to rehabilitate (though both purposes are seen to be important) (Hutton 2005, Hough & Roberts 2004, Roberts & Hough 2005a).

Those who feel that prisons do not punish enough have been found to be more likely to say courts are too lenient (Roberts & Hough 2005a).

Perceptions of Community Sentences

The public have been found to know very little about the range of community sentences (Anderson et al 2002, Roberts 2002, Roberts & Stalans 2004, Stead et al 2002)

Studies have found people to be supportive of the use of community sentences for less serious crimes, particularly when they are seen to be providing rehabilitation, reparation and punishment. These criteria mean more to the public than statistics about their effectiveness (Scottish Government Social Research 2011, Roberts & Hough 2005b+c, Roberts & Stalans 2004, Hutton 2005, Anderson et al 2002, Stead et al 2002, Roberts 2002, Hough & Moxon 1985).

People have also, however, been found to be sceptical about community sentences' current ability to meet these criteria (Anderson et al 2002, Hutton 2005, Scottish Government Social Research 2011).

Civil justice

2.5 As stated in the introduction, there has been very little research into public attitudes towards civil courts and processes (see Moorhead et al 2008). What does exist either focuses specifically on the experiences of users of civil courts and processes (see Genn & Paterson 2001 for Scottish evidence), or does not distinguish between criminal and civil courts. Inasmuch as Genn and Paterson's 2001 Paths to Justice survey included questions on general attitudes to courts and judges, the findings echoed those outlined above on criminal courts - their respondents lacked confidence in the fairness of hearings and felt that the judiciary were remote and out of touch. They also felt that the courts served the interests of the wealthy, that lawyers charges were too high, and respondents were therefore put off by perceived costs of legal proceedings (pages 241-243).

2.5.1 The main finding, then, in regards to public attitudes to civil justice is that there are simply not enough studies on this topic to ascertain any trends or patterns. Likewise, there is very little evidence in regards to drivers of attitudes, and so more research is required if we are to know what people think of civil justice and why. The remainder of this report will therefore, by necessity, focus on the drivers of attitudes to the criminal justice system.

2.6 This section has examined general trends and patterns in attitudes towards the justice system, with the aim of giving a sense of what people think about the justice system and its constituent parts. Where possible it has outlined Scottish findings and looked at patterns across time and geography. We will now move on to examine in detail the evidence on what drives these attitudes - what factors, experiences and influences shape people's confidence, trust and support for the police, courts, and the justice system more generally.