8. The Effects of Judicial Reform on Confidence and Trust in the Courts

This chapter presents the main results regarding the effects that a Criminal Procedure Reform had on trust in the courts in Chile. It uses public opinion, collected from crime surveys, to assess attitudes of both users of the system (victims) and general public. The results show that during the analysed period, trust in courts shows different paths for the general public, showing a consistent increase only in those for higher socio-economic status. Users, on the other hand, show an increase in their good views of the courts due to the Criminal Procedure Reform, although there is a decrease in those who have been exposed to it longer time. Using regression analysis, the results show that higher trust in the courts is affected by the perception of increased crime and the perception of victimisation risk and socio-economic status, supporting the idea of an instrumental view of the criminal justice system.