A large research program devoted to the social representations of criminal justice was launched in the 1970s. It ended in this same decade. Since then, this topic, which deserves periodic reexamination, has been gradually abandoned. Now, it only holds a marginal place in research. Caused by various factors, this trend is dangerous because it leaves an issue as critical as the way the population views the criminal justice system to opinion surveys whose methods and postulates sometimes lack scientific rigor.