Opinia publică despre criminalitate, justiție și poliție

Abstract

This study presents some stable attitudes of the public opinion on the criminality field (rates, causes, degree of dangerousness), the legal sanctions (the relationship between the degree of dangerousness and the harshness of verdicts) and police performance (its popular support). The article presents mass media bearing on the construction of public opinion (overrepresentation of criminality, fear induced by victimization etc.) and the peculiarities of the cognitive processes that influence the emergence of opinions (overgeneralization, cognitive accessibility, trust in evaluative judgments). In order to support the theoretical statements about criminality, justice and police, I compared the findings with those of national and international public opinion surveys (Eurobarometrul de Opinie Publicã, 2004, apud New Europe Barometer, 2004).