Abstract
The chapter is aimed at clarifying the links between trust in criminal justice institutions (police and courts) and fear of crime in Czech opinion research data Aktér 2015 (N = 926). Its first part provides an overview of the main hypotheses about the relationship of trust in criminal justice institutions and fear of crime.
In the second part, we check the so-called reassurance hypothesis, which states that people trusting police and courts less are more afraid of crime. This hypothesis has not been confirmed in the Czech sample, when controlling for the influence of gender, educational attainment, victimisation, the age of the respondent, satisfaction with the work of the police and also how disorganised they perceive the surroundings of their residence.
However, there is some negative effect on fear of crime if the respondent, who has personal direct experience with the police, rates the experience as bad.