ABSTRACT Criminal courts are an essential component of the criminal justice system. How people perceive courts determines, in part, their compliance with court decisions. When courts are perceived as being just, fair and trustworthy, citizens are more likely to respect court rulings. However, few people have direct experience with the criminal courts, but many do with the police. This paper explores whether citizens’ perception of police fairness affects their perception of criminal courts as being fair and examines the influences of a variety of individual and community factors upon this relationship. We tested a conceptual model with three clusters of predictive variables (individual, community, and national levels) based on data from the Caribbean. The findings indicate that perceived fairness of courts is driven primarily by perceived fairness of the police as well as by involvement in one’s community and an individual’s crime victimization. Policy implications of these findings are explored.

中文翻译：

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刑事法院公平感的前因：比较分析

摘要 刑事法院是刑事司法系统的重要组成部分。人们对法院的看法在一定程度上决定了他们对法院判决的遵守。当法院被认为是公正、公平和值得信赖的时，公民更有可能尊重法院的裁决。然而，很少有人直接接触刑事法庭，但很多人接触过警察。本文探讨了公民对警察公平的看法是否会影响他们对刑事法院公平的看法，并考察各种个人和社区因素对这种关系的影响。我们根据加勒比地区的数据测试了一个具有三个预测变量集群（个人、社区和国家层面）的概念模型。调查结果表明，法院感知的公平性主要受警察感知的公平性以及参与社区和个人犯罪受害的驱动。探讨了这些发现的政策含义。