Police In South Korea Research Articles

Exploring Trust in the Police in South Korea During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Does Fear of the COVID-19 Matter?

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments restricted community members’ activities and, in turn, patterns of human behavior, both legal and illegal, changed. In many countries, the police have been entrusted to enforce these new COVID-19 related restrictions and were often perceived as the main enforcers of these sometimes unpopular measures. In this paper, we study four types of factors that may affect the public's trust in the police during the COVID-19 pandemic: traditional factors, such as interactions with the police during the pandemic, assessments of the police effectiveness in dealing with the pandemic, COVID-19 related factors, such as instrumental concerns for their personal health, and the adherence to the conspiracy theories. Specifically, using data from a sample of 527 respondents from the Seoul metropolitan area in South Korea, collected in the fall of 2021, we estimate the effects of the factors listed above. The results indicate that trust in the Korean National Police was strengthened when the police were perceived to have effectively dealt with the challenges of the pandemic and addressed the instrumental concerns of the community in the protection of public health. No demographic variables were significantly independently associated with trust in the police during the pandemic. The theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Mapping out the motivational basis of active representation as intergroup behavior

AbstractResearch on representative bureaucracy highlights the importance of translating passive into active representation. But what is the motivational basis that underlies this translation? Drawing on theories of social identity and intergroup behavior, we argue that bureaucrats belonging to underrepresented groups actively represent their own group because of a desire for positive distinctiveness. Two large‐scale conjoint experiments were performed using a unique sample of 1929 frontline investigators in the National Police in South Korea. Results show that investigator‐accuser gender match per se did not cause female investigators to prioritize female accusers of assault more than male investigators did. But once the assaults were manipulated to involve salient female disadvantages that lower women's status—for example, intimate partner violence—female accusers were more likely to be prioritized by female investigators. Our findings suggest that active representation is not unbounded partiality but a lever that guards against inequitable group disparities.

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.

Assessing a multidimensional model of police legitimacy in South Korea with latent class analysis

ABSTRACT There are few validated scales for police legitimacy, and the ambiguous dimensionality of legitimacy raises a serious issue. This study tests a multidimensional scale of legitimacy, drawing upon the police legitimacy model. To identify a certain number of classes with a similar pattern of hypothesized legitimacy among a nationally representative sample of South Korean adults, we employed latent class analysis that legitimacy researchers have yet to consider. The current study found that police legitimacy was constituted with the four sub-dimensions of lawfulness, procedural fairness, police effectiveness, and equitable distribution of police sanctions. South Korean adults within the four multidimensional legitimacy scales were separated into three clusters: the legal procedure-oriented group (41.6%), the equitable sanction-oriented group (20.8%), and the cynic-oriented group (37.6%). The odds of self-reported complying with police requests and cooperating with the police were higher among members in both the legal procedure-oriented and equitable sanction-oriented groups compared to those in the cynic-oriented group. Finally, the four multidimensional legitimacy scales had a direct effect on both self-reported compliance and cooperation and had a mediating effect on the relationship between obligation to obey and both outcome variables. We conclude that police in South Korea should enhance the four multidimensions of legitimacy during each encounter with the public.

Untangling the Complex Pathways to Confidence in the Police in South Korea: a Stepwise Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Studies on confidence in the police have employed three theoretical frameworks: (1) an instrumental model that focuses on the effect of police effectiveness and fear of crime, (2) an expressive model that emphasizes the role of general perception on social cohesion, and (3) a procedural model that highlights the distinct role of perceived police fairness. While studies have clarified specific pathways in the instrumental and expressive models, a comprehensive examination of all three models remains sparse in the field of criminal justice. Furthermore, existing studies rarely examined the multilevel causal structures of these models. This study aims to address these limitations by examining separate and comprehensive multilevel structural equation models (SEMs) of these theoretical frameworks. The data was collected through the multistage stratified random sampling from 12 boroughs of four metropolitan cities in South Korea, and a total of 2040 individuals were interviewed face-to-face. The results of the SEM analyses showed that perceived police fairness was the primary determinant of confidence in the police in South Korea, while fear of crime, perceived police effectiveness, and perceived social cohesion had a limited effect. Policy implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

다수준 분석을 통한 경찰신뢰 영향요인 탐색: 지역사회 맥락요인을 중심으로

그간 경찰신뢰와 관련한 많은 연구들이 국내외에서 수행되었는데, 국내에서는 상대적으로 경찰활동의 산출변수나 지역사회의 구조적 맥락변수들을 충분히 고려한 연구가 부족하다. 이러한 연구의 공백을 메우기 위해 본 연구는 한국형사정책연구원의 범죄피해조사자료를 기반으로 경찰청과 통계청의 지역수준 자료를 결합하여 개인적 특성과 경찰활동 및 지역적 특성이 경찰신뢰에 미치는 영향을 탐색하였다. 분석결과, 지역사회 유대와 집합효능감, 생활만족도는 경찰신뢰에 정적인 영향을 미치는 반면, 무질서 인식과 범죄피해 및 범죄두려움은 경찰신뢰에 부정적인 영향을 미쳤다. 특히 범죄두려움의 경우 성폭력 범죄에 대한 두려움만이 경찰신뢰와 유의한 관계가 있었다. 지역수준 변수에서는 자살률과 공공장소가 경찰신뢰와 부적 관계를 보였으며, 특히 자살률의 경우 지역유대와 집합효능감과 경찰신뢰와의 관계를 조절하였다. 또한 경찰신뢰가 높은 집단과 낮은 집단을 분리하여 분석한 결과 경찰신뢰에 영향을 미치는 요인들의 차이가 발견되었다. 이러한 분석결과는 표현적 요인과 도구적 요인의 경찰신뢰에 대한 영향을 보여주며, 지역사회 경찰활동을 더욱 강화해야 할 필요성을 보여준다. 이외에 연구의 시사점과 한계에 대하여 논의하였다.

Perception of police legitimacy among private security officers

The private security market is growing around the world, and public police are no longer the predominant agents of order maintenance and crime prevention. This development has important implications as different policing agents come in contact with each other. Specifically, understanding how they view each other can help increase the benefits of today’s paradigm of security governance. Despite abundant research on citizen perceptions of police, few studies explore private security officers’ opinions about their public counterparts. Therefore, this research explores private security officers’ perceptions of the police in South Korea. Results show that the respondents’ attitudes toward police performance and distributive and procedural justice have varying influences on the three dimensions of police legitimacy: Obligation to obey, trust, and normative alignment. Additionally, the authors suggest the police should understand that private security officers’ perceptions of police legitimacy are influenced by distinct factors depending on contact experience and employment type.

Prosecutors’ role and their relationship with the police in South Korea: In a comparative perspective

This study aims to explore prosecutors' role and their relationship with the police in South Korea. For the comparative study, six systems of criminal justice – England and Wales, the USA, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea – were selected. The role of public prosecutors and their relationship with the police were effectively explored through a mixture of contrasting models: ‘coordinate & adjudicative’ (1), ‘coordinate & investigative’ (2), ‘hierarchical & adjudicative’ (3), and ‘hierarchical & investigative’ (4). The prosecutors in the model 1 emphasizes adjudicative role, and work together with the police in a coordinated fashion. In the model 2, the prosecutors can become actively involved in the investigation even where there is a coordinate relationship. The systems in the model 3, unlike the common law tradition, are based on a hierarchical structure. Nevertheless, the prosecutors do not become over-involved in the investigation due to some systemic limitations. The South Korean system is a typical example of the model 4 in which the investigation and prosecution are conducted by prosecutors. This may increase efficiency as it builds a factory conveyer belt without significant obstacles. However, considering the due process, such prosecutorial involvement in the investigation can cause some problems.

Confidence in the police among Korean people: An expressive model versus an instrumental model

The legitimacy of police authority has often been questioned due to a relatively low level of public confidence in the police in South Korea. Instrumental and expressive perspectives provide competing explanations of the determinants of public confidence in the police. Empirical studies comparing these competing perspectives are thus far limited to British and US studies. To fill this void, this study used a structural equation modeling approach to examine expressive and instrumental models of confidence in the police among South Koreans. Analyses of data from the Korean National Crime Victimization Survey revealed that both models were empirically supported. However, the expressive perspective (i.e., perceptions of local disorder, informal social control, and social cohesion) was more important than the instrumental perspective (i.e., worries about crime) in explaining confidence in the police among Koreans. The implications for research and policy are discussed based on the findings.

Perceived Citizen Cooperation, Police Operational Philosophy, and Job Satisfaction on Support for Civilian Oversight of the Police in South Korea

While civilian oversight in matters pertaining to police accountability is commonly found in law enforcement agencies in Western countries, this concept is fairly new to many emerging democracies. This study examines the origins and development of citizen oversight of the police in South Korea. Using a sample consisting of 406 surveyed Korean police officers, this study further examines the effects of individual factors and organizational characteristics, such as police operational philosophy, citizen support, and job satisfaction, on officers’ perceptions of civilian oversight of the police. The findings suggest that, although South Korean police officers are generally ambivalent about the role of civilian oversight, there is a strong relationship between organizational characteristics and support for a civilian role in police oversight.

Predictors of Social and Defensive Coping to Address Workplace Stressors: A Comparison of Police in South Korea and the United States1

This paper focuses on effects of status differences of nationality, gender, age, education, social class, rank, and in the United States, race, on comparing how police cope with workplace stressors. It also considers whether the nature of workplace stressors, a collec‐ tivist orientation, and availability of social support explain subgroup differences in how officers cope. Survey data were collected from 676 South Korean and 947 U.S. officers. Coping that relies on social relationships is much more common in South Korea than the United States, but there are not similar country differences for defensive coping, such as taking formal action. Police officers use social coping if their workplace stressors are of an interpersonal nature, if they have a collectivist orientation and if they have strong social support, but these variables do not explain the country differences. The strongest predictor of defensive coping is the presence of interpersonal workplace stressors. Discussion focuses on cultural and organizational features that might explain the national differences, and on implications for police administrators, law enforcement organizations, and future research.

Public satisfaction with the South Korean Police: The effect of residential location in a rapidly industrializing nation

Recent years have witnessed growing research interest in citizen perceptions of the police. This was likely the result of the community policing movement, which sought to strengthen ties between citizens and the police, as well as to concerns about the legitimacy of the police. Most of this research focused on police agencies in the United States, and little research had been conducted on citizen perceptions of the police in Asian countries. This study sought to fill this void through an analysis of citizen perceptions of the police in South Korea. To address these issues, telephone interview survey data gathered from 11,500 randomly selected citizens were obtained in the rapidly industrializing country, South Korea. Several sets of multiple-regression models were estimated to assess the effect of urbanization, demographics, evaluations of police services, and perceived corruption on citizen satisfaction with police. The results suggested that citizens in small to mid-sized cities and large urban cities were less satisfied with police than were residents of rural areas. In addition, age, evaluations of police service, and perceptions of corruption were related to citizen satisfaction. The results were discussed in comparison to previous research in Asia and the United States and other Western countries.

The politicization of police in South Korea: a critical review

The Korean police have been greatly affected by the political developments of the twentieth century. Political neutrality and structural autonomy of the police from the government has not been ensured at all times since the establishment of the Korean police. Instead, the police had been used as an instrument for ruling regimes to seize and maintain their political power. The Korean police, siding with the authoritative governments, emphasized politically‐oriented policing rather than citizen‐oriented policing, frequently violating constitutional and human rights in the process, all of which has contributed to the crisis the Korean police now face. To prevent the political manipulation of the police and ensure their autonomy, more structural reforms should occur.