BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

12th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology BOOK OF ABSTRACT
order to provide scientific know – how and expertise from practitioners. At this point, one of
the most remarkable results and information acquired is the ‘SEP’ or ‘Scientific and Economical
Protection’.
Countries, regions, companies and public – private intelligence services enhance their focus
on the creation and/or improvement of an economical intelligence policy. In Belgium, State
Security and the General Service for Intelligence & Security are judicially authorized to protect
our countries SEP. At this point, however, a broader scope is needed in order to intensify our
knowledge regarding the ‘unthinkable’ or ‘things that could happen’. Questions arise concerning
a more profound cooperation between public – private intelligence services and companies.
This presentation, which will be given at the EUROC working group, will highlight the question
whether or not a joint intelligence strategy between intelligence services and companies is
desirable and possible.
TRuST IN pROCEduRAL FAIRNESS ANd pAThWAyS
TO COMpLIANCE: FINdINGS FROM ThE ESS (BELGIAN
dATA) ANd AN INdEpENdENT STudENT SAMpLE
LIEvEN pAuWELS
GhENT uNIvERSITy, GhENT, BELGIuM
The present study examines “pathways” through which citizens comply with the law in Belgium.
Instrumental (deterrence based) pathways to compliance are compared with a procedural justice
driven and morality driven pathways.
Firstly, it is examined to what extent trust in police effectiveness and trust in procedural fairness
can explain individual differences in the moral obligation to obey the police and moral alignment,
independent of personal morality and perceived risk of sanctions. Secondly, it is examined to
what extent the aforementioned dimensions of police legitimacy are related to the tendency to
comply with the law and self-reported offending. All analyses are conducted on the Belgian data
from the European Social Survey (ESS Round 5) which explicitly included a rotating module that
contained scale measures of trust and legitimacy.
The model is additionally tested on an independent survey of university students using the ESS
questions / items that were taken from the ESS trust module.
The findings are rather robust: there is no empirical evidence for the existence of instrumental
pathways to compliance in Belgium. Procedural fairness is indirectly related to compliance through
its effect on the obligation to obey and moral alignment. Especially moral alignment has a strong
effect on self-reported offenses (ESS question: buying stolen goods) but also on self-reported
traffic offenses (in the student sample). Legal cynicism seems to mediate the relationship between
legitimacy and self-reported traffic offenses. The implication of these findings are discussed.
CRIME ANd SOCIETy
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