The effect of socioeconomic factors, fear of crime and social mobilization on the evaluation of judiciary decisions

Abstract

Crimes related to sexual abuse and rape attract large social mobilizations, as happened following the assault on an 18-year-old woman at the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, Spain, by a group of men known as “la manada” (“the wolf pack” in English). Understanding how the aftermath of protests and socioeconomic factors influence the perceptions of fear of crime, safety and justice, measured as judiciary decisions, are the aims of this paper. A randomized sample collected in two periods was obtained (N=605), the first one (n1=454) performed after the judicial sentence of the case, the second (n2=151) four months later, after the social alarm had decreased. The perception of safety increased after the peak moments of the demonstrations. The trust in justice was low and fell after protesters had risen to the streets although its perception was greater among higher income earners. Hence, the perception of safety rises during social mobilizations but only improves for a short period of time whereas the effects on that of justice last for longer.