일선 경찰관의 민주적 법집행의지에 대한 구조방정식 모형분석

Abstract

Numerous studies have identified the impact of police self-legitimacy on support for democratic policing. In Korea, a study exploring legitimacy has been underway from the law enforcement's perspective since 2022. This study introduced the concept of police self-legitimacy, which employed a structural equation model analysis to evaluate whether a linear relationship could be predicted in a single model, with self-legitimacy as a mediator, between independent variables and dependent variables.
 Among the independent variables only the relationship with citizens significantly affected the support for democratic policing. The impact of organizational justice and the relationship with superiors, however, was not exist. Among the mediator, it was evident that only self-assesed legitimacy influenced the support for democratic policing, whereas the effect of external legitimacy was not exist. Additionally, the study found that self-assessed legitimacy mediated the influence of citizen relationships on the commitment to support democratic law enforcement. Theoretically, it was anticipated that external legitimacy would exhibit a stronger connection with citizens. So, further exploration should be needed to understand the outcomes via indirect effects mediated by self-assessed legitimacy. This study offers the opportunity to shift the focus towards the normative aspects of law enforcement. By contrasting other viewpoints of both citizens and police police legitimacy, police legitimacy can be comprehended more systematically.