Perceptions of the U.S. Justice System
Opinion
Confidence in Institutions/Professions

Respondents were asked about their level of confidence in various institutions in American society, such as organized religion or the legal profession/lawyers, using a 5-point scale with the end points of "extremely confident" and "not at all confident."

While confidence in the overall U.S. justice system is only at 30%, confidence in the different components within the system varies widely. For example, 50% of the respondents said they are extremely or very confident in the Supreme Court. Interestingly, only 34% said the same of the Federal Courts. Confidence in judges is only fair, with 32% of the respondents being extremely or very confident. Confidence in the U.S. Congress is even lower, at 18%, and only 14% of respondents said they are extremely or very confident in lawyers. In fact, the only category generating less confidence than the U.S. Congress and lawyers is the media at 8%.

The converse of this information confirms that this negative perception is held by a majority of respondents. Sixty percent (60%) are only slightly confident or have no confidence in the media. Further, almost half of respondents (42%) lack confidence in lawyers. On the positive side, the U.S. Supreme Court and the local police are the two components of the justice system that have the lowest percentage of "no confidence" votes.

In contrast to most components of the justice system, the local police, doctors and accountants have been able to garner a fairly healthy amount of confidence.

 

	Extremely/ Very Confident	Somewhat Confident	Slightly/Not At All Confident
	%	%	%
U.S. Supreme Court	50	35	15
The Local Police	47	33	20
Medical Profession/Doctors	46	39	15
Accounting Profession/Accountants	39	44	15
Organized Religion	37	30	31
Federal Courts other than U.S. Supreme Court	34	45	21
Judiciary/Judges	32	46	22
U.S. Justice System in General	30	43	27
State and Local Courts	28	47	25
The Public Schools	27	38	35
The Executive Branch of the Federal Government – Office of the President; Departments of Commerce, Defense, etc.	26	36	37
The Executive Branches of State/Local Government – Office of Governors, Mayors, Etc.	24	50	26
The State Legislatures	19	54	27
Your State's Prison System	19	41	39
U.S. Congress	18	47	35
The Legal Profession/Lawyers	14	44	42
The Media	8	32	60

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Survey and report prepared by M/A/R/C� Research.