GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings today to examine management reform issues in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Despite the FBI's recent controversies, a majority of the American public has a favorable opinion of the bureau, but not as overwhelmingly favorable as in the past.
A Gallup poll conducted Jul. 10-11, 2001 shows that roughly seven in 10 Americans express a favorable view of the FBI. Only 27% of Americans describe their opinion of the FBI as "very favorable," with another 44% saying "somewhat" favorable. Twenty-four percent have an unfavorable opinion. When this question was first asked in 1965, 84% of Americans rated the FBI very favorably. Much of the downward trend in very favorable opinions of the FBI appears to have occurred in years past, however. The percentage with a very favorable opinion decreased to 52% in 1973, and dropped to 37% in 1975, the last time this question was asked in this format before last week.
Despite their overall favorable opinion of the FBI, a May 18-20, 2001 Gallup poll shows that Americans do not have a great deal of confidence in the bureau. At the time, just 38% of Americans said they had "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the FBI, shortly after the bureau revealed that it had mishandled files in the Timothy McVeigh trial, which led to a postponement of his scheduled execution.
The FBI ranks low when compared to local and state law enforcement agencies. Sixty-three percent of the public said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in their state police, and 59% said the same thing about their local police. However, Americans do have more confidence in the FBI than they do in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as only 29% expressed confidence in it. These findings may also be reflective of what is known as a local positivity bias, in which respondents view something negatively on a national level, but positively on local level.
Survey Methods
These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national samples of 998 and 1,010 adults, 18 years and older, conducted July 10-11 and May 18-20, 2001, respectively. For results based on these samples, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
Next, I'd like your overall opinion of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, or FBI. If you have a favorable opinion of the FBI, name a number between PLUS ONE and PLUS FIVE -- the higher the number, the more favorable your opinion -- with plus five being the MOST FAVORABLE. If you have an unfavorable opinion of that FBI, name a number between MINUS ONE and MINUS FIVE, with minus five being the MOST UNFAVORABLE.
|
Very favorable |
|
|
Very unfavorable |
No |
|
|
2001 Jul 10-11 |
27% |
44 |
16 |
8 |
5 |
|
1975 Oct 31-Nov 3 |
37% |
43 |
11 |
5 |
4 |
|
1973 Jul 6-9 |
52% |
33 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
|
1965 Nov 18-23 |
84% |
12 |
* |
* |
4 |
|
SCALE = Very favorable (+5,+4), Favorable (+3, +2, +1), Unfavorable (-1, -2, -3), Very unfavorable (-4, -5) |
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1965-1975 WORDING: Here is an interesting experiment. You notice that the boxes on this card go from the highest position to plus 5-- or something you like very much--all the way down to the lowest position to a minus 5-- or something you dislike very much. How far up the scale or how far down the scale would you rate the following organizations? How about the FBI? |
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Now I am going to read you a list of institutions in American society. Please tell me how much confidence you, yourself, have in each one -- a great deal, quite a lot, some, or very little? First, ... Next, ... [RANDOM ORDER]?
A. The FBI, or Federal Bureau of Investigation
|
A great deal |
Quite |
|
Very |
NONE |
No |
|
|
2001 May 18-20 |
20% |
18 |
36 |
21 |
2 |
3 |
B. The CIA, or the Central Intelligence Agency
|
A great deal |
Quite |
|
Very |
NONE |
No |
|
|
2001 May 18-20 |
15% |
14 |
41 |
21 |
2 |
7 |
C. The state police in your state
|
A great deal |
Quite |
|
Very |
NONE |
No |
|
|
2001 May 18-20 |
36% |
27 |
26 |
10 |
* |
1 |
D. The local police in your area
|
A great deal |
Quite |
|
Very |
NONE |
No |
|
|
2001 May 18-20 |
34% |
25 |
25 |
13 |
3 |
* |
CONFIDENCE IN INSTITUTIONS SUMMARY TABLE
|
2001 May 18-20 |
A great |
Quite |
Great deal/ Quite a lot |
|
% |
% |
% |
|
|
C. The state police in your state |
36 |
27 |
63 |
|
D. The local police in your area |
34 |
25 |
59 |
|
A. The FBI, or Federal Bureau of Investigation |
20 |
18 |
38 |
|
B. The CIA, or the Central Intelligence Agency |
15 |
14 |
29 |
(vol) -- volunteered response
* -- less than 0.5%
