Confidence in the New South Wales criminal justice system is at its lowest ebb since the NSW Bureau of Crimes Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) commenced periodically surveying the metric in 2007, with only a little over half of adults consulted, or 54 percent, considering that people who commit crimes are brought to justice, while confidence in the NSW Police Force has also plummeted in recent years.
Released on 23 May 2026, the Public Confidence in the NSW Criminal Justice System: 2025 Update found a significant decline in confidence across all areas since the last assessment in 2019, which is in line with a general decline since 2012 in the key five measures: bringing justice to crime, meeting victims’ needs, the rights of the accused, treating the accused fairly and promptly dealing with cases.
Further civil society impressions about the state’s criminal justice system included that 73 percent of the public consider the rights of the accused are respected and 69 percent thought those accused are treated fairly. But when it comes to victims of crime only 34 percent considered their needs are being met, and in terms of whether cases are promptly dealt with, only 23 percent believed this.
BOCSAR researchers explain that public confidence in the criminal justice system isn’t just an ideal to be sought, but it is rather “critical” for the “legitimacy and effectiveness” of the system, as when “trust declines”, it erodes the functioning of the system itself, as victims are less likely to report crimes, offenders are less likely to cooperate with courts and community participation can diminish.
The report further highlights that confidence in the police has been on a decline since 2014, which is most pronounced over the six years to 2025. However, as is the case with other such surveys taken in Australia and overseas, public confidence in general is higher in police than it is with the courts. And this general trend continues to result in the lowest levels of confidence being in corrective services.
The effect of the pandemic
The 2025 report marks the fifth BOCSAR has produced since 2007, and it notes that confidence in both police and the courts has declined since 2012, but the decrease in respect of police was most significant over the last six years, with confidence in law enforcement bringing offenders to justice dropping from 82 to 73 percent and in its meeting victims’ needs declining from 70 to 56 percent.
BOCSAR notes that the drivers of this steep decline in confidence in police since 2019 are unclear, but there are several factors that likely fed into the drop. These includes the response to the COVID pandemic, and specifically the multiple orders the NSW government issued under the Public Health Act 2010 (NSW), over the years 2020 and 2021, which aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.
The NSW police was in charge of enforcing such orders, which included restrictions on social gatherings, stay-at-home rules and mandatory mask wearing, via the issuing of infringement notices for breaches of the rules. And this resulted in $56 million worth of fines being handed out, as police took a “zero tolerance approach to noncompliance”, which likely reduced confidence in the force.
In terms of NSW courts, COVID also had a substantial impact on their ability to operate, with some matters suspended in March 2020, while others were transferred online. This caused significant delays to the NSW Local Courts, with domestic violence cases taking 100 days extra, so by 2021/22, matters took 3 months longer than in 2018/19, and this continued to a lesser degree into 2024/25.
“In the 12 months to June 2025, the median time from arrest to court finalisation for defended matters was 263 days in the Local Court and 826 days in the District Court,” the BOCSAR report outlines.
“Reflecting these pressures, the 2025 survey indicates that public satisfaction with the practical administration of criminal justice is at its lowest recorded level.”
Other factors in declining confidence
BOCSAR further concluded that several high-profile sexual assault and domestic violence cases over recent years have likely contributed to declining confidence in the criminal justice system, and in particular, around police and the courts treatment of victims, with the media having “emphasised perceived inadequacies in police responses and the distress experienced by complainants”.
And as with previous surveys, the NSW agency that sources and evaluates crime and justice statistics found that confidence in the criminal justice system also depends on where people source their information about it from, as those reading newspapers, government reports and educational materials have a higher degree of faith in it, than those consulting talkback radio or social media.
The agency’s past research in this area has also found that confidence in the system is closely related to public perceptions about crime rates and criminal justice outcomes.
BOCSAR recently reported that in December 2025 crime rates continue a long-term decline, with seven of the thirteen major crime categories trending downwards, while four remained stable and only two had risen.
There has also been a persistent trend since 2012 in respondents to the BOCSAR survey considering that sentencing is too lenient, which came in at 56 percent of respondents in the current report. However, around a third of respondents have consistently considered that penalties handed down by the courts are “about right”, and this rose from 30 percent in 2019 to 39 percent in 2025.
“Despite the slight improvement in public knowledge, respondents continued to grossly overestimate levels of violent crime, underestimate conviction and imprisonment rates for home burglary and underestimate conviction rates for murder,” the BOCSAR report explains, adding that these patterns are consistent across the four waves of surveys it has conducted in this area.
Key takeaways for policymakers
Report authors further note that studies both local and overseas have found that public perceptions about the criminal justice system vary due to demographics and experience with crime. And confidence in the justice system is usually higher amongst males, younger people, those living in metropolitan areas and those with higher education levels and more income.
However, victims of property offences and violent crime often report less confidence in the criminal justice system, and several studies have found these outcomes in terms of people experiencing the impact of these crimes in this state.
Further, whilst crime rates, especially property crimes and violent offences, have been on a steep decline in NSW since the turn of the century, the public is often unaware that this is the case, and the misperception is that crime rates are rather on a steep increase, while the NSW court system is going easy on perpetrators, and such false ideas are often being propagated by the media.
The BOCSAR researchers underscore that whilst the underlying reasons for the decline in confidence are often unclear, three key findings have arisen out of its ongoing research into this area, which it considers should be informing policymakers.
The first point is that victims of crimes have significantly lower levels of confidence in the criminal justice system, which the agency concludes should highlight the value in victim supports, such as those that facilitate the reporting of crime and participation in court proceedings, and therefore, increased investment in these services should be considered.
Another significant and ongoing finding is that there is widespread dissatisfaction about the time it takes for the criminal justice system to finalise matters. This issue is one that cuts right across sociodemographic groups, and it’s not just related to the length of time courts take to resolve matters, but it also extends to how the NSW Police Force is dealing with cases.
“Despite some improvements in court delay resulting from initiatives such as the Early Appropriate Guilty Plea reforms, rolling list courts, special call overs and additional judicial officers, the public perception is that time from arrest to court finalisation is unacceptably high,” stressed the BOCSAR report.
The final finding that has become apparent is that “public knowledge of crime trends and court outcomes is poor”, and the agency considers there must be improvements in the public being able to access accurate information around crime levels and sentencing outcomes, and the straightforward way to achieve this would be by “promoting unbiased reporting by mainstream media”.
