We trust the police. But the court system? Not so much
Just 30 per cent of Australians have faith in the country’s courts and justice system according to a new poll, but more than double that figure trust the police and feel safe in their homes and suburbs.
A whopping 47 per cent of people in the recent Resolve Political Monitor survey said they did not have faith in the judiciary, with another 23 per cent declaring they were either undecided or neutral.
Our equivocation on the court system comes in the wake of a string of high profile cases in recent years.Credit:
The lack of faith in Australia’s court system follows a series of high profile trials in recent years. Bruce Lehrmann and decorated former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith had findings made against them in defamation cases but not in criminal proceedings – Lehrmann for rape and Roberts-Smith for war crimes.
In contrast to people’s lack of faith in the courts, the survey of 1603 people, taken earlier this month, found 69 per cent trusted the police; 13 per cent said they did not and 18 per cent were undecided.
A total of 82 per cent agreed they felt safe in their own home, with 9 per cent disagreeing and 9 per cent undecided, while 67 per cent agreed they felt safe in their local area or suburb, with 19 per cent disagreeing and 15 per cent neutral or undecided (some figures add up to more than 100 per cent due to rounding).
Social media was also marked down, with 59 per cent agreeing with the statement they felt safe on the internet and social media, while 21 per cent were undecided and 21 per cent disagreed.
The exclusive findings are contained in the most recent Resolve Political Monitor survey of 1603 people, conducted from July 10 to 13 by pollsters Resolve Strategic. The results have a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
Resolve pollster Jim Reed said while most people trusted the police, “less than a third trust the justice system to deliver, which is hardly surprising given the conga line of mis-trials, appeals, resignations, scandals and inconsistent results we’re seeing in high profile cases like the Lehrmann prosecution”.
The finding was important to the legal profession but also for social cohesion, he said.
“We can only operate as a society if we all agree to certain shared values, behaviours, rights and responsibilities, and if those administering the rules lose our collective trust the whole show is at risk.”
Voters were asked during the survey to nominate three types of crime they thought authorities should tackle as a priority in Australia right now. An almost equal number of men (64 per cent) and women (67 per cent) nominated ending violent attacks, including rape and murder, as their top priority. Tackling domestic violence and stalking came in second, with 59 per cent, but far fewer men (52 per cent) than women (66 per cent) nominated this as a priority.
Child abuse (38 per cent) was the third most-nominated priority, with men (30 per cent) and women (46 per cent) split over how much of a priority it should be.
Men were more likely to prioritise tackling scams and fraud (36 per cent) and stopping the physical theft of vehicles, mugging and burglary (34 per cent) than child abuse, whereas 32 per cent of women nominated scams as a priority and 25 per cent nominated physical theft.
People failing to pick up dog poo was nominated by just 2 per cent of people, while cracking down on vapes and e-cigarettes (5 per cent) and on vandalism (5 per cent) were low on people’s priorities.
A total of 12 per cent of those surveyed said they’d witnessed a crime in the last 12 months, while 8 per cent said they’d been the victim of a crime. Surprisingly, just 51 per cent of people who’d experienced a crime said they had reported it, while 38 per cent said they had not done so.
Reed said crime statistics suggest Australia is becoming a safer place.
“But when one-in-12 are telling us they’ve been a victim of crime in the last year, and only around half of them reported it, we are not perfect - and neither are the statistics we rely on to judge that,” he said.
“It’s encouraging that most people believe crimes endangering people should be prioritised. At the end of the day, you will recover from a stolen car, a scam or graffiti on your fence, but the loss and trauma stemming from violence stays with us.”
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