Foreword | Acknowledgements | Tables & Figures | Executive Summary | Introduction | Levels of knowledge about crime and the criminal justice system | Attitudes to criminal justice professionals | Crime seriousness | Sentencing practice | Aims of sentencing | General discussion/concluding remarks | References | Appendices
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Ratings of criminal justice professionals
3.3 Comparison with other literature
3.4 Summary
Much of the research on attitudes to criminal justice professionals has concentrated on the public’s view of the police. Results of these numerous polls show that the general public possesses favourable attitudes towards the police (Roberts 1992; Huang & Vaughn 1996; Roberts & Stalans 1997). However, the research also shows that these attitudes are mediated by demographic factors and other experience. In particular, ethnic background appears to be the strongest predictor of attitudes towards the police (Huang & Vaughn 1996).
There has also been some research examining attitudes towards other criminal justice professionals, such as judges, lawyers and the prison service. In contrast with the positive views of the police, judges tend to receive poor ratings (Roberts 1992; Hough & Roberts 1998), as do prisons in some cases (Doble & Klein 1989).
Section 2 of the questionnaire asked respondents to rate the job done by a number of criminal justice professionals, including groups who provide services for victims such as Women’s Refuge, Rape Crisis, and Victim Support. They were asked to state whether these criminal justice professionals were doing an excellent, good, fair, poor or very poor job.
Figure 3.1 shows that the prison service emerges with the lowest rating of all seven groups. ‘Don’t know’ was not provided as an option. However, a considerable number of the sample stated that they did not know how good a job the prison service (6.5%), criminal lawyers (7.2%) and probation officers (14.1%) were doing.
Excluding ‘don’t knows’, 39% of respondents thought the prison service did an excellent or good job, 39% that they did a fair job and 23% thought they did a poor or very poor job. Judges rated second lowest, with 42% saying that judges were doing an excellent or good job and 21% that they were doing a poor or very poor job.
Survey respondents were most positive about groups providing services for victims and the police. Eighty-six percent and 74% respectively thought that community groups and the police were doing an excellent or good job. However, when the responses for ‘excellent’ are presented separately from those for ‘good’ (Table 3.1), it can be seen that respondents were more likely to say that groups providing services to victims were doing an excellent job, but that police were doing a good job. While only 10% of the sample said that juries were doing an excellent job, over half said they were doing a good job.
Figure 3.1 How good a job are they doing? Ratings of criminal justice professionals
Note: ‘Community groups’ refers to groups providing services for victims, such as Women’s Refuge, Rape Crisis and Victim Support.
Question: Now I would like to talk about groups of people with different jobs in the criminal justice system. We would like to know how good a job you think each of these groups of people are doing. In general, do you think (the police etc.) are doing an excellent job, a good job, a fair job, a poor job or a very poor job?
Table 3.1 How good a job are they doing? Ratings of criminal justice professionals
| Excellent % |
Good % |
Fair % | Poor % | Very poor % | |
|
Groups providing services for victims |
48.6 |
37.2 |
9.8 |
3.4 |
1.1 |
|
Police |
25.2 |
48.7 |
19.3 |
5.5 |
1.3 |
|
Juries |
9.5 |
53.4 |
32.0 |
4.4 |
0.7 |
|
Probation officers |
5.9 |
43.9 |
39.1 |
9.2 |
1.9 |
|
Criminal lawyers |
6.1 |
38.6 |
42.3 |
10.2 |
2.8 |
|
Judges |
6.8 |
35.5 |
36.7 |
16.9 |
4.1 |
|
Prison service |
5.4 |
33.3 |
38.6 |
18.4 |
4.4 |
Note: ‘Don’t know’ responses: police (0.2%), criminal lawyers (7.2%), judges (1.5%), juries (3.2%), probation officers (14.1%), prison service (6.5%), community groups (2.5%).
Survey respondents who said that groups who provide services for victims were doing an excellent or good job were more likely to:
Survey respondents who said the police were doing an excellent or good job were more likely to:
Respondents who said juries were doing an excellent or good job were more likely to:
Respondents who said probation officers were doing an excellent or good job were more likely to:
Respondents who said criminal lawyers were doing an excellent or good job were more likely to:
Respondents who said judges were doing an excellent or good job were more likely to:
Respondents who said the prison service was doing an excellent or good job were more likely to:
These findings are similar to overseas research studies which have asked comparable questions. A study of 422 members of the Alabama public asked respondents to rate various components of the state criminal justice system, the state police, the state prisons, the courts and the juvenile justice system (Doble & Klein 1989). Respondents were most positive towards the state police and least positive towards the state prisons. Over half (55%) said that the police were doing either an excellent or a good job. No respondent said that the state prison was doing an excellent job and only 14% said they were doing a good job. A high proportion (18%) also said that they weren’t sure.
The question asked in the British Crime Survey (Hough & Roberts 1998; Mattison & Mirlees-Black 2000) is the most comparable to the question we posed in this survey. The British public were asked to rate how good a job the police, prison service, magistrates, crown prosecution service, probation service, judges and juvenile courts (added in the 1998 survey) were doing. We also asked survey respondents to rate juries and groups who provide services to victims.
Table 3.2 provides a comparison of the survey findings with those of the 1996 and 1998 British Crime Surveys. Only those professional groups asked about in both surveys are included in the table. Police were rated the highest of the professional groups by both the New Zealand survey respondents and the British public. However, in general, New Zealand respondents were more likely to rate each of the criminal justice professionals more highly than the British public. Forty-two percent of New Zealand survey respondents rated judges positively, compared with only 20% and 23% of the British public in the 1996 and 1998 British Crime Surveys. While survey respondents here gave the prison service the lowest rating of all criminal justice professionals, the British public gave judges the lowest rating.
Table 3.2 Ratings of criminal justice professionals: A comparison of findings for the New Zealand and British public 1
| Excellent/good | Fair | Poor/very poor | |||||||
| NZ | BCS 1996 | BCS 1998 | NZ | BCS 1996 | BCS 1998 | NZ | BCS 1996 | BCS 1998 | |
|
Police |
74% | 64% | 61% | 19% | 30% | 33% |
7% |
6% |
6% |
|
POs2 |
50% | 26% | 26% | 39% | 49% | 49% |
11% |
26% |
25% |
|
Lawyers3 |
45% | 23% | - | 42% | 53% | - |
13% |
24% |
- |
|
Judges |
42% | 20% | 23% | 37% | 49% | 52% |
21% |
32% |
26% |
|
Prison |
39% | 39% | 32% | 39% | 43% | 41% |
23% |
19% |
27% |
Notes:
Research has shown that African Americans in general perceive the police more negatively than white Americans (Huang & Vaughn 1996). Similarly, survey respondents in this study who identified as Māori or Pacific Peoples viewed the police less positively than those who identified as NZ European/Pakeha.
The New Zealand Police have conducted nation-wide surveys in 1993 and 1995 on the public’s attitudes towards policing (MRL Research group 1993 & 1995). The public was asked a number of questions on attitudes towards crime, satisfaction with police services and perceptions on the way in which partnership with the police could be developed. In response to a general question on satisfaction with police services, three-quarters of respondents in both 1993 and 1995 indicated that they were very satisfied or satisfied with the service the police provide to the public. However, satisfaction was below average for both Māori and younger respondents. More in-depth research on Māori attitudes towards the police has shown that participants in focus groups thought that the police had strong anti-Māori attitudes and practices and that the participants had a strong distrust in the police (James 2000).