Nearly 80 percent of respondents to a poll expressed doubt about the impartiality of judges, while a larger number said they were dissatisfied with judicial reform efforts, a poll released on Friday by National Chung Cheng University’s Crime Research Center showed.
The survey showed that 21.9 percent of respondents said judges conduct trials correctly, down 1.2 percentage points from a previous poll.
The government in August 2017 convened the National Congress on Judicial Reform, but 80.9 percent of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with its efforts.
Photo: Liu Ching-hou, Taipei Times
Asked about countermeasures against false news reports, 81 percent of respondents said they support the government’s use of police and the judiciary, with 49.8 percent expressing strong approval.
Regarding public security, 91.3 percent, a record, said they felt safe in their neighborhoods, while satisfaction regarding public security rose 11.1 percentage points.
The poll showed that 77.5 percent of respondents were satisfied with the performance of police in maintaining public security, also a record, after a crackdown on gangs and weapons in the run-up to the local elections in November last year.
Support for improvements in salaries and welfare for police, firefighters and prison officials was high, with 87.8 percent of respondents approving.
However, when asked about the performance of prosecutors, only 32.3 percent said they were satisfied, including 2.3 percent expressing high satisfaction.
Support for the death penalty was high, with 79.6 percent disagreeing that it should be abolished, including 53 percent who expressed strong disapproval, while 26.6 percent said they disagree, but would be willing to consider other options. Only 15.7 percent supported ending capital punishment.
Meanwhile, 72.6 percent said they were dissatisfied with the government’s performance in tackling corruption, the poll showed.
Regarding the legalization of cannabis, 95.4 percent disagreed that the law should be changed, while 51.4 percent said they were dissatisfied with the government’s performance in drug prevention, but more than half said that fraud prevention was satisfactory.
Asked if they supported rules to make the personal information of sex offenders in their communities public, 72.4 percent said yes, including 45.1 percent who expressed strong approval.
The poll, which was conducted from Jan. 23 to 25, collected 1,802 valid samples and has a margin of error of 2.31 percentage points.
The survey project was convened by center director Yang Shi-lung (楊士隆), with criminology professors Cheng Jui-lung (鄭瑞隆), who is also the dean of student affairs, and Hsu Hua-fu (許華孚) as deputy conveners.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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