Surveying Citizen Satisfaction with the Criminal Justice System in Malaysia

Models of the criminal justice system have developed from focusing on the traditional role of the system to acknowledging the position of the victims. The latter recognises that victims' insights are important in determining if a system functions effectively. The objective of this study is to explore what entails satisfaction of citizens towards the criminal justice system. The current study employed a survey method to ask 166 Malaysian respondents to list down what services should be offered and demeanours shown by criminal justice personnel (i.e. police, court personnel) in order for them to be satisfied with the system. The responses were analysed according to themes that were both specific to the sample of the study and parallel to the variables discussed in the literature to check for universality. The findings compiled 12 satisfaction components that were consistent with the ones presented in the literature and 11 components that were specific to the sample used in this study. Implications of this study include highlighting that satisfaction is not one-dimensional, but based on patterns.