Trust in the Belgian criminal justice chain. A qualitative empirical study on the trust relationship between the local criminal investigation department, the federal criminal investigation department, the public prosecutor's office and the examining magistrates

This doctoral thesis studies the interorganisational trust process in the Belgian criminal justice system. It is the result of a five-year (2012-2017) study in the context of the IAP project Justice and Populations (IAP VII/22) financed by Belspo. The research takes a public administration perspective and studies the trust process between the local police, the federal police, the public prosecutor’s office and the examining magistrates; these are the central actors. The purpose of the study was twofold. The first goal was descriptive. The meaning of the trust process was examined from the perspective of the central actors. The second goal was explanatory. Here, the (sub)antecedents that might influence on the trust process were examined. The study thus tries to fill the gaps in the literature on ‘trust within justice’. On the basis of these goals, 4 research questions were formulated:

• RQ1. What is the formal-legal context of the relationships between the local police, the federal police, the public prosecutor’s office and the examining magistrates, henceforth called the actors?
• RQ2. How do the actors reflect on the specific aspects of the trust and distrust process?
• RQ3. How do the actors interpret the three central elements of the trust process in their relationship with the respective other actors?
• RQ4. What are the (sub)antecedents of the trust process (for the three elements separately as well as for the process as a whole) in the relationship between the actors?

The conceptual framework of this study is presented visually in the figure below.

Figure  - Adjusted conceptual framework in light of the results of parts 4, 5 and 6

The trust process (right hand side of the figure) was defined as follows in this study: the willingness of the trustor to be vulnerable (passive trust), based on the positive expectations regarding the intentions and the behavior of the trustee (the perceived trustworthiness), which can lead to actual actions (active trust). The terms between brackets are the central elements of the trust process (right hand side of the figure). A central proposition of this study is inspired by Dietz and Den Hartog  (Dietz, 2011, p. 215) and states that the trust process starts with the perceived trustworthiness, and runs through passive trust, to active trust. This means that there is only active trust when the trustee is perceived to be trustworthy and when there is passive trust. Hence, when the trustee is perceived as trustworthy, this does not automatically imply that there will be passive trust and active trust. The trust process can be influenced by different antecedents (left hand side of the figure), that were further subdivided into different subantecedents in this study.

In order to answer the research questions, an exploratory qualitative study was done, consisting of 6 parts:

• Part 1: development of the initial conceptual framework
• Part 2: selection of central actors
• Part 3: outline of the formal-legal context
• Part 4: first refinement of the initial conceptual framework by means of an analysis of legal sources
• Part 5: second refinement of the initial conceptual framework by means of an analysis of scientific literature, other relevant documents and 6 expert interviews
• Part 6: third refinement of the initial conceptual framework by studying the embedded cases, based on 32 semi-structured interviews

No comparison was made between the different parts of the study and thus between the different data collection methods. On the other hand, the different parts did not follow sequentially, so it is possible that they somehow influenced one another. In part 1, the initial conceptual framework was developed by studying the scientific literature. In part 2, the central actors of this study were determined by means of an analysis of the criminal procedural law. In part 3, we described the formal legal context (circle around the figure). This part gave more insight in the relationships between the central actors and served as a background for the empirical research. Part 4 consisted of the analysis of legal sources. This resulted in a list of tentative propositions regarding the influence of the (sub)antecedents on ‘trust’. This list was the basis for part 5. On the one hand, further information on these propositions was sought in the scientific literature and other relevant documents. On the other hand, the propositions from part 4 were presented to 6 experts. In part 5 we examined whether the (sub)antecedents had specific properties that could explain their influence on the trust process and whether there were interactions between the different (sub)antecedents in their impact on the trust process. This resulted in a new list of propositions. Part 6 of the study concerned the study of the embedded cases. Here, 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the central actors of two departments of one judicial district. Specifically,  interviews were conducted with the local police (the police chiefs and members of the local police), the federal police (the “dirjuds”, i.e. judicial directors, and the members of the federal police), the public prosecutors, and the examining magistrates. These interviews had two aims. First, they were used to explore respondents’ views on four specific issues regarding the trust process: the definition, negative trust and positive distrust, the connection between interpersonal trust/distrust process and the interorganisational trust/distrust process, and the model of Lewicki, McAllister and Bies (1998). Second, the interviews were used to investigate the impact of the (sub)antecedents on the trust process. This part also resulted in a new list of propositions.

It is expected that research results will be published in the beginning of 2018.