Legitimacy and Compliance in Criminal Justice

Questions of legitimacy and issues of compliance lie at the heart of criminal justice systems and policies. Recent years have seen greater recognition and awareness of the essential role of legitimacy, trust and public confidence in underpinning the effectiveness of criminal justice practices and institutions. As such, experiences and perceptions of legitimacy have direct implications for compliance, whilst securing public compliance remains a pivotal challenge for systems of crime control. Exploring the hitherto neglected links between legitimacy and compliance raises crucial questions about the effectiveness of criminal justice and point to ways in which both elements might be enhanced.

This book brings together leading international scholars to consider a number of connected themes relating to compliance, legitimacy and trust in different areas of criminal justice and social regulation. It presents an inter-disciplinary dialogue and debate that combines insights from criminology, psychology and socio-legal studies drawing together conceptual analysis with empirical research findings in relation to policing, anti-social behaviour interventions, community penalties, electronic monitoring, imprisonment and tax avoidance. In so doing, the book presents advances in theory and conceptual understandings of compliance and legitimacy within systems of crime control. The contributors highlight the importance of normative and social dimensions to compliance as well as the constructive role played by experiences of procedural fairness and legitimacy in systems of justice. This cutting-edge collection of essays will be invaluable reading for all those interested in thinking critically about the future of criminal justice policies and practices including academics, researchers and criminal justice practitioners.