Factors Influencing Public Trust in the Police in South Korea: Focus on Instrumental, Expressive, and Normative Models

Abundant studies examining public trust in the police have applied several theoretical models including instrumental, expressive, or normative models. However, few studies have attempted to simultaneously assess the empirical validity of these theoretical models of public trust in the police. In addition, there has been little research on public trust in police in East Asia; most of the empirical research on this topic has been explored in Western societies. To extend the knowledge of public trust in the police, the current study investigated to what extent factors drawn from three models influence public trust in the police using a sample of South Korean citizens. The results show that, consistent with prior research, police effectiveness, procedural justice, and social cohesion had significant, positive effects on public trust in the police. Police effectiveness was the most influential factor followed by procedural justice and social cohesion. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Police capacity and autonomy issues in sectarian crimes and enforcement of anti-terror laws in Punjab

Contemporary research mainly relates police ineffectiveness in sectarian crimes prevention-investigation and enforcement of anti-terror laws to disorganized police infrastructure, a shortage of manpower, a lack of professionalism and limited access to modern equipment. This article, by applying capacity (i.e. manpower, resources, professional and technical training, etc.) and autonomy (effective and neutral exercise of powers within mandates delegated to them) concepts, aims to examine police effectiveness in the enforcement of anti-sectarian laws in the context of interference in their functions by the political executive and the State’s Army. It addresses the question: How do police capacity and autonomy issues affect police effectiveness in prevention-investigation of sectarian crimes and enforcement of anti-terror laws? This article applies a mixed method research approach by using data from books, journal articles, newspapers, TV talk shows, online sources and interviews. It relates the police’s effectiveness in prevention-investigation of sectarian crimes and enforcement of anti-terror laws to their capacity and autonomy issues in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It argues that the police due to capacity and autonomy issues cannot exercise delegated powers impartially, which affects their effectiveness in prevention-investigation of sectarian crimes and enforcement of anti-terror laws.

The Formal-Informal Control Nexus During COVID-19: What Drives Informal Social Control of Social Distancing Restrictions During Lockdown?

The public rely on the police to enforce the law, and the police rely on the public to report crime and assist them with their enquiries. Police action or inaction can also impact on public willingness to informally intervene in community problems. In this paper we examine the formal-informal control nexus in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a survey sample of 1,595 Australians during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, we examine the relationship between police effectiveness, collective efficacy, and public willingness to intervene when others violate lockdown restrictions. We find that perceptions of police effectiveness in handling the COVID-19 crisis has a positive impact on the public’s willingness to intervene when others violate lockdown restrictions.

The mediating roles of law legitimacy and police legitimacy in predicting cooperation with police in China

Public’s willingness to assist the police in preventing and fighting crime forms one of the fundamental pillars for implementing effective policing strategies and reforms. Despite widely supported by research conducted around the world, the process-based model of policing has received little research attention in authoritarian settings. Based on survey data collected from Shanghai, China, this study assesses the roles of law and police legitimacy in mediating the relationships between police fairness and effectiveness and willingness to cooperate with the police. We found that Chinese people’s greater senses of police fairness can lead to their higher levels of trust in and willingness to obey the police, but the total effect of police fairness on willingness to cooperate with the police is non-significant. Police effectiveness, meanwhile, directly promotes cooperation with the police. We also found that people who perceived the law as legitimate expressed greater willingness to cooperate with the police. Police legitimacy, compared to law legitimacy, is a more pronounced linking factor connecting police fairness to public cooperation. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Are Trustworthiness and Legitimacy ‘Hard to Win, Easy to Lose’? A Longitudinal Test of the Asymmetry Thesis of Police-Citizen Contact

Objectives Test the asymmetry thesis of police-citizen contact that police trustworthiness and legitimacy are affected more by negative than by positive experiences of interactions with legal agents by analyzing changes in attitudes towards the police after an encounter with the police. Test whether prior attitudes moderate the impact of contact on changes in attitudes towards the police. Methods A two-wave panel survey of a nationally representative sample of Australian adults measured people’s beliefs about police trustworthiness (procedural fairness and effectiveness), their duty to obey the police, their contact with the police between the two waves, and their evaluation of those encounters in terms of process and outcome. Analysis is carried out using autoregressive structural equation modeling and latent moderated structural models. Results The association between both process and outcome evaluation of police-citizen encounters and changes in attitudes towards the police is asymmetrical for trust in police effectiveness, symmetrical for trust in procedural fairness, and asymmetrical (in the opposite direction expected) for duty to obey the police. Little evidence of heterogeneity in the association between encounters and trust in procedural fairness and duty to obey, but prior levels of perceived effectiveness moderate the association between outcome evaluation and changes in trust in police effectiveness. Conclusions The association between police-citizen encounters and attitudes towards the police may not be as asymmetrical as previously thought, particularly for changes in trust in procedural fairness and legitimacy. Policy implications include considering public-police interactions as ‘teachable moments’ and potential sources for enhancing police trustworthiness and legitimacy.

MORAL BONDS BETWEEN POLICE OFFICERS AS A FACTOR OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANISATIONAL UNITS OF THE POLICE FORCE IN CONDITIONS OF ITS SYSTEMIC STEREOTYPING IN THE AREA OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Being theoretical and empirical in nature, the study presents, considering the assumptions of the Stereotype Content Model, a combina-tion of factors and effects of systemic stereotyping of the police force and its offi cers. On the basis of the author’s empirical research, the relationships between the effects of the process of stereotyping of the police have been determined, recognised as the level of development of moral bonds between police offi cers, and the level of moral development of police organisational units within the system of local and provincial structures. Considering the research fi ndings, the study also provides a number of conclusions for mana-gerial practice that should be aimed at the development of the identifi ed variables, which signifi cantly affect police effectiveness in the area of public safety.

Corruption and Trust in Police: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Procedural Justice

This article examines the role of citizens’ contact with police and their assessments of officers’ corruption in police in India. More importantly, we examine whether police procedural justice moderates the relationship between citizens’ assessments of police corruption and trust. Data ( N = 845) from Delhi, India, suggest that consistent with the literature, citizens’ trust in police is explained by their contact with police, fear of crime, police effectiveness, and corruption in police work. However, two significant findings emerged from this analysis. First, though citizens’ perception of police corruption is a significant explanatory variable of trust in police, procedural justice moderates the strength of the relationship of corruption on trust. Second, the nature of contact experience reveals essential differences in the moderating effect of procedural justice on the relationship between corruption and trust in police. Finally, irrespective of the nature of contact experience, police effectiveness, and trust in police is related.