Is perception of the mainstream legal system homogeneous across ethnic groups?

Abstract

There is a great social debate regarding possible legal privileges favouring some ethnic groups over othersin a particular society. This fact may negatively influence citizens’ perceptions about fairness and legitimacyof the mainstream legal system and, thus, compliance with established social norms. The main purpose ofthe present study was to analyse the perception of the mainstream legal system in citizens belonging todifferent ethnic groups. In particular, this work had two objectives. First, the purpose was to explore interethnicperceptions of legal authorities and the justice system by examining the following variables:procedural justice, distributive justice, legitimacy of the legal system, contact with police, and reasons forobeying the law. A second objective was to test the predictive power of perceived procedural justice,distributive justice, and contact with police in the subsequent perception of legitimacy across the differentethnic groups. The sample was composed of 351 participants, who were split into two groups: White-Europeans (76.4%) and ethnic minorities (23.6%). Results revealed ethnic group differences in all studyvariables, showing ethnic minorities a more general negative attitude towards the legal system in terms ofprocedural justice, distributive justice and legitimacy conceded to the legal system, in comparison with themajority group. Moreover, legitimacy conceded to legal authorities was predicted by procedural justice, butnot by distributive justice neither contact with police, in both groups. Practical and policy implications arediscussed based on the importance of citizens’ perceptions about the legal authorities in order to legitimatethe mainstream legal system

Artículo 5/2020_EJIC (nº 201) Percepción de legitimidad en la policía y en la justicia española entre inmigrantes residentes en Málaga

“…Los estudios en el marco de la teoría de la justicia procedimental y percepción de legitimidad muestran, por un lado, que las personas inmigrantes no perciben a las instituciones como una fuente de apoyo y control social (Estévez et al, 2013;García-España et al, 2016). Las instituciones son consideradas por estos como un medio de ataque debido a la desigualdad de trato manifiesto que suelen recibir (García-España et al, 2016).…”

“…Las instituciones son consideradas por estos como un medio de ataque debido a la desigualdad de trato manifiesto que suelen recibir (García-España et al, 2016). De hecho, algunos estudios realizados demuestran que las actitudes negativas hacia el sistema legal están relacionadas con una menor participación en los juicios como testigos, menor compromiso como jurados y menor probabilidad de denunciar delitos, particularmente entre las minorías étnicas (Estévez et al, 2013).…”

“…Pero, también son cada vez más comunes en otros países como España (véase, p.ej., Baz Cores & Fernández-Molina, 2018), China (véase, p.ej., Jackson & Bradford, 2019;Sun et al, 2018) o Nigeria (veáse p.ej., Akinlabi, 2017). El interés por conocer la legitimidad otorgada por las personas inmigrantes a las instituciones, también, es cada vez mayor (véase, p.ej., Barrick, 2014;Bradford & Jackson, 2018;Estévez et al, 2013;Pryce et al, 2017;Tyler, 2011). Aunque si bien es cierto que en España apenas se ha trabajado la percepción de legitimidad de las personas inmigrantes.…”

Influence of the Roman Law on Formation of the Romano-Germanic Legal Family

“…From the scientific point of view the system of the Romano-Germanic law appeared in the XIII century. Till this period, beyond all doubt, there were elements, by means of which the system was created, but it was early then to speak about the system (Estévez et al, 2013).…”

Challenge of Academic Paper as a Solution to Fulfilling Legal Needs in the Community

“…Overcoming that, most people then regarded it as an exact formula, while still allowing open spaces for the gap of differences in perception. [4].…”