Understanding Public Confidence in American Courts

Key Points

• To analyze the factors that determine public confidence and institutional support for lower and state court systems in the United States.
• Conducted a systematic public opinion analysis focusing on citizen attitudes toward American lower and state courts.
• Assessed the explanatory power of prior court experiences, procedural fairness perceptions, and institutional design choices.
• Perceptions of procedural fairness in court proceedings strongly account for public support of lower courts.
• Direct personal experience with the judicial system and structural institutional design choices independently drive public confidence levels.