An overwhelming majority of people do not trust judges and prosecutors, a survey released yesterday found.
The annual poll, the National Public Victimization Prevalence and Government Crime Control Policy Survey, was conducted by the Crime Research Center at National Chung Cheng University.
The survey showed 84.6 percent of respondents distrust the objectivity and fairness of judges, a 7 percentage point increase over the previous year and a record high.
The poll found 76.5 percent of respondents distrust the objectivity and fairness of prosecutors, in line with the historic norm of about 24 percent confidence in prosecutors measured by previous polls.
People appear to be optimistic about other law-and-order issues, the survey indicated.
For example, 86.2 percent of respondents said they felt safe in their homes and neighborhoods, the highest level ever recorded.
Furthermore, 43.9 percent of respondents said they feel satisfied with safety in general, continuing a four-year trend of steady growth in public confidence in law and order.
According to the poll, 72.9 percent of respondents said they are satisfied with the performance of law enforcement in suppressing crime, the highest annual approval rating to date.
Satisfaction with government crime-control efforts increased to 44.7 percent from the previous year’s 41.3 percent, marking an all-time high, the survey found.
However, a large majority of people disapprove of the government’s anti-corruption measures, with 78 percent of respondents saying they disapprove of the campaign against corruption.
In other law-and-order issues, 83 percent of respondents opposed abolishing the death penalty, while 78 percent said that prison reform is necessary, the poll found.
The poll suggested that crimes such as theft, violence and fraud, which most directly affect the public, are under effective control.
Last year, 7.7 percent of respondents reported being victims of theft, a 0.4 percentage point decline from a year earlier, it said.
The poll found 2.1 percent of respondents said that they or members of their family were victims of violent crime last year, a slight increase from 1.7 percent in the previous year.
The percentage of respondents who reported being victims of fraud increased by 0.9 percent to 5.6 percent.
While 53.8 percent of respondents said they are not concerned about acts of international terrorism against Taiwan, 15 percent of respondents said they are “very concerned” about terrorism and 31.2 percent said they are “concerned,” with a combined total of 46.2 percent of respondents concerned to some degree, the poll found.
The poll was conducted between Jan. 25 and Feb. 2, with 1,715 valid samples and a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
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