AUC PHILOSOPHICA ET HISTORICA
AUC PHILOSOPHICA ET HISTORICA

AUC Philosophica et Historica (Acta Universitatis Carolinae Philosophica et Historica) is a multidisciplinary academic journal focused on the humanities with more than 50 years of tradition.

The journal is indexed in CEEOL, DOAJ, and EBSCO.

AUC PHILOSOPHICA ET HISTORICA, Vol 2018 No 2 (2018), 93–113

Theories of police legitimacy – its sources and effects

Pavla Homolová

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/24647055.2018.6
published online: 18. 04. 2018

abstract

The review of theories on police legitimacy aims at introducing the subject with a multidisciplinary approach. It quotes criminological, sociological as well as psychological and institutional theories of legitimacy, in order to provide the reader a rich framework, in which the findings of the presented current empirical studies can be evaluated. Police legitimacy is conceived as a social phenomenon, closely related to social norms such as socially constructed police roles and models of policing. The prevailing normative model of police legitimacy in criminology is discussed in greater detail, including critical outlook on procedural fairness as the assumed main source of police empirical legitimacy. Recent findings concerning legal socialization and theories of legitimization myths are high- lighted in order to supplement the micro-level oriented criminological literature on police legitimacy. Possible future pathways of legitimacy research in criminology are discussed.

keywords: police; legitimacy; trust; compliance; cooperation

references (80)

1. Beetham, D. (1991). The legitimation of power. London: Macmillan Education. CrossRef

2. Blader, S. L., & Tyler, T. R. (2009). Testing and extending the group engagement model: linkages between social identity, procedural justice, economic outcomes, and extrarole behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(2), 445–464. CrossRef

3. Bottoms, A., & Tankebe, J. (2012). Beyond procedural justice: A dialogic approach to legitimacy in criminal justice. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 102(1), 119–170.

4. Bourdieu, P. (1979). Symbolic power. Critique of Anthropology, 4(13–14), 77–85. CrossRef

5. Bourdieu, P. (1986). The force of law: Toward a sociology of the juridical field. The Hastings Law Journal, 38, 805–853.

6. Bradford, B. (2014). Policing and social identity: Procedural justice, inclusion and cooperation between police and public. Policing and Society, 24(1), 22–43. CrossRef

7. Bradford, B., Huq, A., Jackson, J., & Roberts, B. (2014). What price fairness when security is at stake? Police legitimacy in South Africa. Regulation & Governance, 8(2), 246–268. CrossRef

8. Bradford, B., & Loader, I. (2016). Police, crime and order: The case of stop and search. In B. Bradford, I. Loader, B. Jauregui & J. Steinberg (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Global Policing (241–260). London: SAGE Publications.

9. Brockner, J., Ackerman, G., Greenberg, J., Gelfand, M. J., Francesco, A. M., Chen, Z. X., & Shapiro, D. (2001). Culture and procedural justice: The influence of power distance on reactions to voice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37(4), 300–315. CrossRef

10. Cavanagh, C., & Cauffman, E. (2015). Viewing law and order: Mothers' and sons' justice system legitimacy attitudes and juvenile recidivism. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 21(4), 432–441. CrossRef

11. Clark, I. (2005). Legitimacy in international society. Oxford University Press.

12. Coicaud, J. M., & Curtis, D. A. (2002). Legitimacy and politics: A contribution to the study of political right and political responsibility. Cambridge University Press. CrossRef

13. Cooper, J. A. (2014). In search of police legitimacy: Territoriality, isomorphism, and changes in policing practices. El Paso: LFB Scholarly Publishing.

14. Crank, J. P. (2003). Institutional theory of police: A review of the state of the art. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 26(2), 186–207. CrossRef

15. Denef, S., Bayerl, P. S., & Kaptein, N. A. (2013). Social media and the police: Tweeting practices of British police forces during the August 2011 riots. In J. A. Konstan, E. Chi & K. Höök (Eds.), Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (3471–3480). New York: ACM Press. CrossRef

16. Eck, J. E., & Rosenbaum, D. (1994). The new police order. Effectiveness, equity, and efficiency in community policing. In D. Rosenbaum (Ed.), The challenge of community policing: Testing the promises (3–23). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

17. Fagan, J., & Tyler, T. R. (2005). Legal socialization of children and adolescents. Social Justice Research, 18(3), 217–241. CrossRef

18. Garland, D. (2001). The culture of control. Oxford University Press.

19. Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press.

20. Herbert, S. (2006). Tangled up in blue: Conflicting paths to police legitimacy. Theoretical Criminology, 10(4), 481–504. CrossRef

21. Hirschman, A. O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Harvard University Press.

22. Homolová, P. (2014). Trust in criminal justice and compliance with the law in Czech society: Testing the Normative Hypothesis on 1999 and 2011 Samples. Varstvoslovje, 16(4), 412–434.

23. Hough, M., Bradford, B., Jackson, J., & Quinton, P. (2016). Does legitimacy necessarily tame power? Some ethical issues in translating procedural justice principles into justice policy. (Law, Society and Economy Working Papers 13/2016). London School of Economics and Political Science. CrossRef

24. Huq, A. Z., Tyler, T. R., & Schulhofer, S. J. (2011). Mechanisms for eliciting cooperation in counterterrorism policing: Evidence from the United Kingdom. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 8(4), 728–761. CrossRef

25. Huq, A. Z., Jackson, J., & Trinkner, R. (2016). Acts that legitimate: Widening the array of predicate policing practices. (Public Law and Legal Theory Working Paper No. 570). University of Chicago. CrossRef

26. Jackson, J., Huq, A. Z., Bradford, B., & Tyler, T. R. (2013). Monopolizing force? Police legitimacy and public attitudes toward the acceptability of violence. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 19(4), 479–510. CrossRef

27. Jackson, J., & Gau, J. M. (2015). Carving up concepts? Differentiating between trust and legitimacy in public attitudes towards legal authority. In E. Shockley, T. M. Neal, L. M. PytlikZillig & B. H. Bornstein (Eds.), Interdisciplinary perspectives on trust: Towards theoretical and methodological integration (49–69). Springer International Publishing. CrossRef

28. Jackson, J., Bradford, B., MacQueen, S., & Hough, M. (2016a, September 3). Truly free consent? Clarifying the nature of police legitimacy.

29. Jackson, J., Hough, M., Bradford, B., & Kuha, J. (2016b). Empirical legitimacy as two connected psychological states. In G. Meško & J. Tankebe (Eds.), Trust and legitimacy in criminal justice (137–160). Springer International Publishing.

30. Jauregui, B. (2013). Beatings, beacons, and big men: Police disempowerment and delegitimation in India. Law & Social Inquiry, 38(3), 643–669. CrossRef

31. Johnson, D., Maguire, E. R., & Kuhns, J. B. (2014). Public perceptions of the legitimacy of the law and legal authorities: Evidence from the Caribbean. Law & Society Review, 48(4), 947–978. CrossRef

32. Jonathan-Zamir, T., & Weisburd, D. (2013). The effects of security threats on antecedents of police legitimacy: Findings from a quasi-experiment in Israel. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 50(1), 3–32. CrossRef

33. Jost, J. T., Banaji, M. R., & Nosek, B. A. (2004). A decade of system justification theory: Accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo. Political Psychology, 25(6), 881–919. Kaina, V. (2008). Legitimacy, trust and procedural fairness: Remarks on Marcia Grimes' study. European Journal of Political Research, 47(4), 510–521.

34. Kane, R. J. (2003). Social control in the metropolis: A community-level examination of the minority group-threat hypothesis. Justice Quarterly, 20(2), 265–295. CrossRef

35. Kešetović, Ž. (2009). Understanding diversity in policing: Serbian perspectives. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 32(3), 431–445. CrossRef

36. Kury, H., Meško, G., Mitar, M., & Fields, C. (2009). Slovenian police officers'attitudes towards contemporary security threats and punishment. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 32(3), 415–430. CrossRef

37. Kutnjak Ivković, S. (2009). The Croatian police, police integrity, and transition toward democratic policing. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 32(3), 459–488. CrossRef

38. Kutnjak Ivković, S. K., Haberfeld, M., Kang, W., Peacock, R., & Sauerman, A. (2016). A multi-country comparative study of the perceived police disciplinary environments. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 39(2), 338–353. CrossRef

39. Levi, M., Sacks, A., & Tyler, T. (2009). Conceptualizing legitimacy, measuring legitimating beliefs. American Behavioral Scientist, 53(3), 354–375. CrossRef

40. Lipset, S. M. (1983). Political man: The social bases of politics. London: Heinemann.

41. Loader, I., & Mulcahy, A. (2003). Policing and the condition of England: Memory, politics and culture. Oxford University Press. CrossRef

42. Lyons, W. (2002). Partnerships, information and public safety: Community policing in a time of terror. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 25(3), 530–542. CrossRef

43. Manning, P. K. (1978). The police: Mandate, strategies, and appearances. In P. K. Manning & J. V. Maanen (Eds.), Policing: A view from the street (7–32). Santa Monica: Goodyear Publishing Company.

44. Mastrofski, S. D. (1999). Policing for people. Ideas in American Policing. Washington DC: The Police Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.policefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Mas- trofski-1999-Policing-For-People.pdf.

45. Mastrofski, S. D., Jonathan-Zamir, T., Moyal, S., & Willis, J. J. (2016). Predicting procedural justice in police–citizen encounters. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 43(1), 119–139. CrossRef

46. Mawby, R. C. (2002). Policing images: Policing, communication and legitimacy. Cullompton: Willan Publishing. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/natl/Doc?id=10750545.

47. Mawby, R. C. (2012). Models of policing. In T. Newburn (Ed.), Handbook of policing (17–46). London: Routledge.

48. Mazerolle, L., Bennett, S., Davis, J., Sargeant, E., & Manning, M. (2013). Legitimacy in policing: A systematic review. (Campbell Systematic Reviews 2013/1). Oslo: The Campbell Collaboration. CrossRef

49. Meares, T. L. (2012). The good cop: Knowing the difference between lawful or effective policing and rightful policing and why it matters. William & Mary Law Revew, 54(6), 1865–1886.

50. Meyer, J. W., & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340–363. CrossRef

51. Moravcová, E. (2016). Willingness to cooperate with the police in four central European countries. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 22(1), 171–187. CrossRef

52. Murphy, K., Bradford, B., & Jackson, J. (2016). Motivating compliance behavior among offenders: Procedural justice or deterrence? Criminal Justice and Behavior, 43(1), 102–118. CrossRef

53. Nix, J., Wolfe, S. E., Rojek, J., & Kaminski, R. J. (2015). Trust in the police: The influence of procedural justice and perceived collective efficacy. Crime & Delinquency, 61(4), 610–640. CrossRef

54. Palthe, J. (2014). Regulative, normative, and cognitive elements of organizations: Implications for managing change. Management and Organizational Studies, 1(2), 59–66. CrossRef

55. Papachristos, A. V., Meares, T. L., & Fagan, J. (2012). Why do criminals obey the law? The influence of legitimacy and social networks on active gun offenders. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 102(2), 397–440.

56. Peršak, N. (2014). Beyond procedural justice: Some neglected aspects of legitimacy of criminal law, policy and justice. In N. Peršak (Ed.). Legitimacy and trust in criminal law, policy, and justice: Norms, procedures, outcomes (1–12). Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.

57. Piquero, A. R., Fagan, J., Mulvey, E. P., Steinberg, L., & Odgers, C. (2005). Developmental trajectories of legal socialization among serious adolescent offenders. The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 96(1), 267–298.

58. Ponsaers, P. (2015). Is legitimacy police property? In G. Meško & J. Tankebe (Eds.), Trust and legitimacy in criminal justice (93–110). Springer International Publishing. CrossRef

59. Reisig, M. D., & Meško, G. (2009). Procedural justice, legitimacy, and prisoner misconduct. Psychology, Crime and Law, 15(1), 41–59. CrossRef

60. Reisig, M. D., Wolfe, S. E., & Holtfreter, K. (2011). Legal cynicism, legitimacy, and criminal offending: The nonconfounding effect of low self-control. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 38(12), 1265–1279. CrossRef

61. Reisig, M. D., Tankebe, J., & Meško, G. (2012). Procedural justice, police legitimacy, and public cooperation with the police among young Slovene adults. Varstvoslovje, 14(2), 147–164.

62. Rosanvallon, P. (2008). Counter-democracy: Politics in an age of distrust. Cambridge University Press. CrossRef

63. Sillince, J. A., & Brown, A. D. (2009). Multiple organizational identities and legitimacy: The rhetoric of police websites. Human Relations, 62(12), 1829–1856. CrossRef

64. Skogan, W. G. (2006). Asymmetry in the impact of encounters with police. Policing & Society, 16(02), 99–126. CrossRef

65. Suchman, M. C. (1995). Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 571–610.

66. Tankebe, J. (2009). Public cooperation with the police in Ghana: Does procedural fairness matter? Criminology, 47(4), 1265–1293. CrossRef

67. Tankebe, J. (2013). Viewing things differently: The dimensions of public perceptions of police legitimacy. Criminology, 51(1), 103–135. CrossRef

68. Tankebe, J., Reisig, M. D., & Wang, X. (2016). A multidimensional model of police legitimacy: A crosscultural assessment. Law and Human Behavior, 40(1), 11–52. CrossRef

69. Trinkner, R., & Cohn, E. S. (2014). Putting the "social" back in legal socialization: Procedural justice, legitimacy, and cynicism in legal and nonlegal authorities. Law and Human Behavior, 38(6), 602–617. Trinkner, R., & Tyler, T. R. (2016). Legal socialization: Coercion versus consent in an era of mistrust. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 12, 417–439. CrossRef

70. Tyler, T. R. (2004). Enhancing police legitimacy. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 593(1), 84–99. CrossRef

71. Tyler, T. R. (2006a). Why people obey the law. Princeton University Press.

72. Tyler, T. R. (2006b). Psychological perspectives on legitimacy and legitimation. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 375–400. CrossRef

73. Tyler, T. R., & Huo, Y. (2002). Trust in the law: Encouraging public cooperation with the police and courts. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

74. Tyler, T. R., & Fagan, J. (2008). Legitimacy and cooperation: Why do people help the police fight crime in their communities. Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, 231(6), 231–275.

75. Tyler, T. R., Fagan, J., & Geller, A. (2014). Street stops and police legitimacy: Teachable moments in young urban men's legal socialization. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 11(4), 751–785. CrossRef

76. Vaughan, B. (2007). The provision of policing and the problem of pluralism. Theoretical Criminology, 11(3), 347–366. CrossRef

77. Weber, M. (1964). The theory of social and economic organization. New York: Free Press of Glencoe. Weber, M. (1972). Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft: Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie: Studienausgabe. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck).

78. Weigand, F. (2015). Investigating the role of legitimacy in the political order of conflict-torn spaces. (Security in Transition: Working Paper Series No. 4). London: London School of Economics. Retrieved from http://www.securityintransition.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Legitimacy-in-the-Political-Order-of-Conflict-torn-Spaces.pdf.

79. Wolfe, S. E. (2011). The effect of low self-control on perceived police legitimacy. Journal of Criminal Justice, 39(1), 67–74. CrossRef

80. Wolfe, S. E., McLean, K., & Pratt, T. C. (2017). I learned it by watching you: Legal socialization and the intergenerational transmission of legitimacy attitudes. British Journal of Criminology, 57(5), 1123–1143.

Creative Commons License
Theories of police legitimacy – its sources and effects is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


periodicity: 2 x per year
ISSN: 0567-8293
E-ISSN: 2464-7055

Download