To date, in Western jurisdictions, many criminal justice reforms are devised and implemented with a close eye on public opinion. These are typically intended to regain or foster legitimacy. However, within this context, there is no common understanding of this concept. This essay aims to provide such a conceptualisation of legitimacy, to enable a consistent and systematic evaluation of attempts to accommodate public opinion. To this end, five levels of legitimacy research are discussed that could structure evaluations of public-opinion-targeted reforms: (1) the normative dimension, (2) the ‘audiences’ addressed, (3) the purpose of the reforms, (4) trust and distrust, and (5) dialogic, or longitudinal effects. Furthermore, since research departing from these five levels of analysis is likely to result in observations that are, by nature, incommensurable, it is argued that an overall assessment of legitimacy always requires a judgment, rather than mere measurement.

中文翻译：

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合法性与舆论：五步模型

迄今为止，在西方司法管辖区，许多刑事司法改革都是在密切关注公众舆论的情况下设计和实施的。这些通常旨在恢复或促进合法性。但是，在这种情况下，对这个概念没有共同的理解。本文旨在提供这样一种合法性的概念化，以便对适应公众舆论的尝试进行一致和系统的评估。为此，讨论了五个层次的合法性研究，可以构建针对公众舆论的改革的评估：(1) 规范维度，(2) 所针对的“受众”，(3) 改革的目的，(4 ) 信任和不信任，以及 (5) 对话或纵向效应。此外，由于脱离这五个分析层次的研究很可能导致观察结果，本质上，判断，而不仅仅是测量。