Legitimacy, trust and legal cynicism: a review of concepts

We review the concepts of legitimacy, trust, and legal cynicism in the context the debate about police legitimacy, discuss the extent to which these concepts relate to each other, and offer some early, speculative thoughts on a how relational model of legitimacy can extend beyond procedural justice concerns. Relying upon procedural justice theory, we emphasise the distinction between police legitimacy and legitimation: popular legitimacy is defined as public beliefs that legal authority has the right to rule (people acknowledge the oral appropriateness of legal authority) and the authority to govern (people recognise legal authority as the rightful authority), whereas legitimation is related to the criteria people use to judge the normative appropriateness of legal agents’ exercise of power (e.g., the extent to which police officers are trustworthy to behave in accordance with people’s normative expectations). Building on studies on legal cynicism and legal socialisation, we consider how other aspects of police conduct can send negative relational messages about people’s value within society and undermine their judgements about the legitimacy of legal authority – messages of oppression, marginalisation, and neglect over the life course. We conclude suggesting avenues for future research on public-police relations.

Training police search and rescue teams: Implications for missing persons work

Police search and rescue teams are crucial players in resolving missing person cases. Resultantly, police employ a host of training for search and rescue members in collaboration with institutions, organizations, and groups. Such training, however, has not been studied. This warrants attention as, in a time of police legitimacy crises and austerity policing, appropriate and quality police training for effective, efficient practices is imperative. Therefore, we examined the training needs and offerings for police search and rescue personnel, and their impact on search and rescue operations and work, through thematic analysis of interviews with 52 police search and rescue members from 17 agencies across Canada. Findings suggest there are no homogeneous, structured, or standardized training offerings for police search and rescue personnel. Instead, training varies within and across agencies and regions, and between officers and roles, as it is commonly based upon anecdotal experiences and in-house developed “best practices.” We discuss the implications of these findings for police search and rescue operations and work.

Perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy: A life history perspective

<p>Prior research on attitudes towards the police has largely focused on the relationship between demographic factors and perceptions of the police. These studies have produced inconclusive results, and there is no general consensus why and how demographic factors account for individual differences in attitudes towards the police. Life history theory, a “middle-level” evolutionary theory, is one that has largely been neglected in mainstream criminology, but has been used in the current research to explain individual differences in attitudes towards the police. Two studies, both using an online survey, were conducted to explore the extent to which life history strategy explained individual attitudes towards procedural justice, police legitimacy and police socialization after controlling for demographic factors, previous police interaction and prior arrest. Study one, a university sample of 305 participants and study two, a general population sample of 75 Wellington residents both found support for the application of life history theory being used to explain individual differences in attitudes towards the police. Overall, the current research showed that those with a slower life history strategy were more likely hold more positive perceptions of police legitimacy, procedural justice and police socialization regardless of demographic factors, previous police interaction, and prior arrest.</p>

Communicating Reform: Testing an Apology for Police History as a Supplement to a Policy Communication

Policing in the United States has a racist history, with negative implications for its legitimacy among African Americans today. Legitimacy is important for policing's effective operations. Community policing may improve policing's legitimacy but is difficult to implement with fidelity and does not address history. An apology for policing's racist history may work as a legitimizing supplement to community policing. On the other hand, an apology may be interpreted as words without changes in practices. Using a survey vignette experiment on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to sample African Americans, this research tests the legitimizing effect of a supplemental apology for historical police racism during a community policing policy announcement. Statistical findings suggest that supplementing the communication with an apology imparted little to no additional legitimacy on policing among respondents. Qualitative data suggested a rationale: Apologies need not indicate future equitable behavior or policy implementation, with implementation itself seeming crucial for police legitimacy improvements.

Legitimacy, trust and legal cynicism: A review of concepts

We review the concepts of legitimacy, trust, and legal cynicism in the context the debate about police legitimacy, discuss the extent to which these concepts relate to each other, and offer some early, speculative thoughts on a how relational model of legitimacy can extend beyond procedural justice concerns. Relying upon procedural justice theory, we emphasise the distinction between police legitimacy and legitimation: popular legitimacy is defined as public beliefs that legal authority has the right to rule (people acknowledge the moral appropriateness of legal authority) and the authority to govern (people recognise legal authority as the rightful authority), whereas legitimation is related to the criteria people use to judge the normative appropriateness of legal agents’ exercise of power (e.g., the extent to which police officers are trustworthy to behave in accordance with people’s normative expectations). Building on studies on legal cynicism and legal socialisation, we consider how other aspects of police conduct can send negative relational messages about people’s value within society and undermine their judgements about the legitimacy of legal authority – messages of oppression, marginalisation, and neglect over the life course. We conclude suggesting avenues for future research on public-police relations.

Policing Terrorism in the Chinese Community: A Critical Analysis

After the 9/11 incidents, global counter-terrorism efforts have focused increasingly on community policing as a proactive and preventive approach to thwarting terrorism. This article explores the developments, tensions, and prospects of counter-terrorism community policing (“CTCP”) in China. By applying the concepts of police legitimacy and social capital to the normative and operational framework of CTCP, I argue that this vital counter-terrorism endeavour is fraught with problems, for both Chinese police to procure effective civic co-operation and the local community to develop its capacity as a self-reliant player in preventing terrorism. More specifically, community co-operation in China’s CTCP is largely an obligatory process in the form of forced mobilization by local bureaucracies that does not necessarily entail trust and support from citizens based on their legitimacy judgement. My analysis on social capital building in Chinese communities further suggests that both police and citizens are unable to form deep and meaningful partnerships for counter-terrorism. While an authoritarian regime like China is reluctant to cede substantial power and authority to people in most of all aspects of policing, the public has become apathetic towards and alienated from voluntary collaboration with police in formal community affairs—a dichotomy lies between reality and ideal in China’s CTCP.

Police legitimacy

The subject of the article is assessment of public confidence in the police and the legality of its activities by the opinion of the Russian population. The purpose of the research is to identify the reasons that affect the assessment of the police legitimacy, its perception by the population. The authors also dare to identify the role of "problem areas" of police activity (related to different violations of the law) in people assessment.The methodology of the research includes: sociological survey among Russians, comparative criminological, statistical, hermeneutic methods, expert assessments.The main result, scope of applications. The central link of the police legitimacy is public trust, recognition, leading to the cooperation between the people and the authorities. Legitimacy assessments are formed based on the study of public opinion – the official monitoring procedure. The website of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs provides information on the results of monitoring public opinion about the activities of the police, but an analysis of its content allows us to note its superficiality and unconvincing optimism. This is obviously affected by the shortcomings of the departmental legal regulation of the process of monitoring public opinion about the activities of the police, which, judging by the questionnaire questions (there are only three of them), is rather imitative in nature. We believe that the official monitoring of public opinion on the activities of the police, at a minimum, should be supplemented by the results of independent sociological studies aimed at establishing "problem areas" of police activity related to violations of the law, violence, ill-treatment, provocations, inducing someone, directly or indirectly, to commit illegal actions, other official abuses. Otherwise, the regulatory requirements for the activities of the police, which establish the foundations of its legitimacy, cannot be fully implemented. The survey of 362 citizens conducted by the authors allows to state that, with a fairly high assessment of the activities of the Russian police, respondents pay attention to the existence of such problems as: the lack of transparency of police activities and the presence of formal and informal means of evading the legality of police activity, the tolerance of justice authorities to police lawlessness, intoxication with power by police officers, the impact of police brutality on social and legal despair, violation of the law in the name of achieving its falsely understood goals. The extreme case of perverted official zeal is the execution of illegal orders. There are quite widespread ideas in public opinion that entrepreneurs often become victims of extortion by the police, that the police take bribes from medium and small businesses, that you can buy off police officers. At the same time, the results of the study indicate that a significant part of the population is determined to cooperate with the police.Conclusions. The public demand for the police is relevant, the honor and main meaning of which is to protect the interests of all people and serve justice. People need such policemen who will demonstrate not strength and power, but simple human complicity. This is the main secret of the legitimacy of the police. Another secret lies in the orientation of personnel policy towards professionals in the police: their selection, training and support in difficult situations.