Modernization and public opinion: Some criminal justice paradoxes

This article is concerned with a paradox about public-sector modernization as it affects the criminal justice system. Whilst the modernization agenda has been shaped with its electoral attractiveness at least partly in mind, little attention is actually paid to the impact achieved by the process on public confidence in the services being "modernized'. The article examines public confidence in the police and in sentencers. It argues that the "modernization' of the police has probably done more harm than good to public confidence in the police, whilst confidence in the criminal process has been very largely ignored by modernizers. Possible reasons for this are discussed.