What determines the trust of immigrants in criminal justice institutions in Europe?

This study examines whether the confidence of immigrants in European countries in criminal justice institutions can be explained by two counteracting processes: expectations formed in the country of origin and discrimination experienced in the residence country. The study draws on the pooled waves of the European Social Survey (2002–8), comparing first- and second-generation immigrants from 66 countries of origin with natives in 21 residence countries. Multi-level regressions are employed to examine the relationship between confidence in institutions and proxy variables for the processes under study. The data strongly support the hypothesis that the high confidence of first-generation immigrants can be explained by frames of reference formed in the country of origin. Some, but limited, support is also found for the impact of discrimination...Read more