Trust and criminal justice: research findings of the Euro-justis Project

Abstract

Between 2008 and 2011, the EURO-JUSTIS project designed and tested new social indicators to measure levels of trust and confidence in justice. The aim of the project was to provide the EU institutions and Member States with a new scientifically validated instrument to collect data on the feelings of trust and confidence of the public opinion in the courts and the police. In a political context that seems to favour populistic approaches and the call for “law and order” , such indicators are precious to collect hard data on the attitudes of public opinion, especially in a comparative perspective. Based upon the assumptions of procedural justice theories, the EURO-JUSTIS consortium designed a set of 45 multiple-choice questions that immediately met the favour of the international community and were then inserted as a module in the V edition of the European Social Survey. This paper briefly outlines the foundational assumptions of the project and describe its main achievements. It also analyses some of the results of the pilot survey performed by the EURO-JUSTIS consortium in some European Countries, including Italy.