Trust between judicial organisations: Findings from the youth care system

Trust is a determinant of efficient and effective cooperation between organisations. The same holds true for cooperation in a judicial context, a challenging context due to certain particularities. There is no hierarchical arrangement between the organisations, independent decision making needs to be ensured, the consequences of malfunctioning are detrimental to society, and cooperation is mandated by law. This means that organisations are heavily interdependent but they have no control over each other’s functioning, nor the possibility to cease cooperation when relations turn sour. In order to understand how interorganisational trust works in a judicial context, this book examines trust within the judicial youth care system. How do police officials, juvenile judges, juvenile prosecutors, and youth counsellors evaluate each other’s trustworthiness? Which organisational characteristics influence this evaluation? Is trust desirable in this context? Answers to these questions are found through a step-by-step evaluation of the observed trust process in this setting. Trust dynamics in this particular context are revealed, and valuable knowledge is acquired about trust in general, a social force that remains difficult to grasp. This study is a first in-depth analysis of the trust process in the context of judicial cooperation. Relevant for both practitioners and academics, it provides new insights into the trust phenomenon, as well as into cooperation between judicial organisations. Marloes Callens received her PhD at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute in 2017. This book is an adapted version of her doctoral dissertation. Her main research interests are in judicial cooperation, trust, and research methodology.

ISBN:9789075376548

Jaar van publicatie:2017