Levels Of Trust In Police Research Articles

Police discrimination and police distrust among ethnic minority adolescents in Germany.

In light of ongoing debates about racially motivated police violence, this paper examines two separate but interrelated phenomena: instances of police discrimination and mistrust in police and the judicial system among ethnic minorities in Germany. Analyses are carried out based on waves 1, 3, and 5 of the CILS4EU-DE data collected among 14 to 20 year-old respondents in Germany. The focus of the paper lies on young men from the Middle East, as well as Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa, who-as our study demonstrates-tend to disproportionally more often report discrimination experiences and particularly low levels of trust in police and courts compared to other ethnic minorities and the majority populations in Germany, and partially also in comparison to their female counterparts. We also show that more frequent experiences of police discrimination are associated with greater distrust of the police and partially also with courts among young men from the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Female adolescents from similar backgrounds are also more distrustful of the police, but this is not explained by their own experiences of police discrimination.

Citizens’ trust in Bangladesh Police: A cross-sectional survey on urban population

Abstract The study assessed the level of trust in police among urban citizens in Bangladesh and examined the associated factors. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted through mobile phones to collect data from 1,680 respondents using a structured questionnaire. A 9-item scale was developed and validated to measure citizens’ trust in police using procedural- and outcome-based trust models. The urban citizens had a relatively low level of trust in the police. Factors like trust in neighbourhoods, satisfaction with governmental law and order operation, believing positive media reports on police, and personal safety awareness were significantly positively associated with trust in police. In contrast, increasing crime in the residential areas, believing negative media reports on police, and senior citizens were significantly associated with low levels of trust in police. Bangladesh police should adopt pro-people practices with effective implementation of law and order to increase their trust.

Scrutiny, legal socialization, and defiance: Understanding how procedural justice and bounded‐authority concerns shape Muslims’ defiance toward police

AbstractPolice rely on citizens to report crime and victimization. Yet for many people low levels of trust in police and concerns about unjust police treatment impact their willingness to engage proactively with police. For some, defying police authority is common. This can be particularly so for ethnic, racial, and religious minority groups. The personal and vicarious experiences these groups have with police play an important role in the legal socialization process, shaping how they perceive and behave toward police. As a religious minority group Muslims have experienced intense scrutiny from police. As such, the current study examines how and why Muslims defy police authority. Using survey data from 398 Australian Muslims, this study tests whether Muslims’ concerns about procedural justice and bounded‐authority violations (i.e., the belief that police overstep the boundaries of acceptable authority) have differential effects on two types of defiance: resistance and disengagement. Findings show that Muslims’ concerns about procedural justice are most important for understanding resistance, while disengagement is dominated by concerns about perceived boundary violations. Further, procedural justice moderates the association between bounded‐authority concerns and resistance, but not disengagement. The implications of these findings for the legal socialization process, theory, and police practice are discussed.

The impact of license plate recognition technology (LPR) on trust in law enforcement: a survey-experiment

We examine the extent to which individuals' knowledge of an advanced police technology (license plate recognition or "LPR") may impact perceptions of police. Technologies with the capacity to track individuals' movements are becoming increasingly common in police practice. Although these technologies may yield positive benefits, their use may also heighten community concerns about increased surveillance, data storage, and data security, thereby potentially negatively impacting community-police relationships. We utilize a survey-based experiment with randomized assignment of participants (n=405) to investigate the impact of individuals' knowledge of LPR use on a variety of police perceptions, including trust in police, community approval, respect for citizens, and respect for individual rights. Most respondents were unaware of LPR use prior to the survey. When compared with a control group, respondents who encountered brief mentions of LPR functions on the survey expressed significantly lower levels of trust in police. Additionally, "strong agreement" with other positive statements about police also appears to have declined in this sample in response to LPR information. Notably, the sample contained high pre-existing levels of trust and support for police, factors which may have moderated the impacts of LPR information. These results support the hypothesis that awareness of LPR use may negatively impact perceptions of police, including trust in police. More generally, although technologies like LPR represent technological innovations, they may also yield unintended consequences, including the potential to undermine police-community relations if adoption decisions are not accompanied by sufficient transparency or community support.

A Comparative Study of Rural and Urban Residents’ Trust in Police in Taiwan

This study aims to examine residents’ attitude toward the police, with an empirical assessment of survey data collected from both urban and rural areas of Taiwan, a Chinese society that has successfully transformed from authoritarianism to democracy. Prior studies using samples from different Chinese societies tend to find that the assessment of the police is unidimensional. Using procedural justice as the guiding theoretical framework, the present study examines whether urban and rural residents express different levels of trust in police on procedural- and outcome-based measures. Findings revealed that urban residents had a lower level of trust in police on the outcome-based performance than their rural counterparts, while no difference was found in procedural-based dimension. In addition, Taiwanese attitudes toward the police were substantially influenced by media coverage of police misconducts and political ideology. This article concluded with discussions of plausible explanations and policy implications.

Trust in police: A comparison of China and Taiwan

Public trust has become a critical issue in transitional societies, such as China and Taiwan, where the legitimacy and accountability of the government in general, and legal authorities in particular, have been frequently scrutinized. Based on nationwide random samples, this study tests the explanatory power of three theories, the social structural thesis, the institutional performance thesis, and the cultural thesis, in accounting for public trust in police in China and Taiwan. Results show that Chinese citizens have higher levels of trust in police than do Taiwanese. The higher level of Chinese trust, to a large extent, derives from greater confidence in macroeconomic conditions and satisfaction with government responsiveness. The performance thesis, thus, receives the strongest support. Results also show some support for the cultural perspective that traditional values, such as interpersonal trust, promote trust in police in both societies. Policy implications are provided for enhancing police legitimacy and facilitating police reform in China and Taiwan.

Citizen Trust in Police

This study assesses the extent to which Chinese citizens trust their police and explores factors that account for variation in public trust in police. Very few studies have empir ically examined Chinese attitudes toward police. Using conflict theory as the guiding theo retical framework and interview data collected from eight Chinese cities, the study tests the effects of conflict variables, including gender, age, education, income, employment, and perceived political influence, and relevant control variables on Chinese public trust in police. The results show that conflict variables only have a modest explanatory power o Chinese attitudes toward police. Younger Chinese and Chinese with lower levels of per ceived political power tend to have lower levels of trust in police. Chinese attitudes toward police are also influenced by satisfaction with public safety, governmental capability of dealing with crime, quality of life, and corruption among government officials Implications for future research are discussed.