Police contact and confidence in the police in a medium-sized city

The importance of quality of police contacts on confidence in the police is well established in data from big cities. This relationship, however, has not been tested with data from a medium-sized city situated in a rural environment. The present study contributes to existing literature by testing th...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Lee, Heeuk D. (Author) ; Cao, Liqun (Author) ; Kim, David W. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2019
In: International journal of law, crime and justice
Year: 2019, Volume: 56, Pages: 70-78
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Summary:The importance of quality of police contacts on confidence in the police is well established in data from big cities. This relationship, however, has not been tested with data from a medium-sized city situated in a rural environment. The present study contributes to existing literature by testing this important relationship with data from a medium-sized city in a rural environment. Results from the ordinary least square regression show that the quality of contacts is indeed the most important predictors of confidence in the police. The relationships hold after controlling for the effects of institutional confidence complex, another important predictor of confidence in the police, and several instrumental and expressive concerns, and socio-demographic factors. Uniquely, reporting a crime and request for services reduce confidence in the police whereas the effects of fear of crime and community disorder are statistically insignificant. These results and their policy implications are discussed within data limitations.
ISSN:1756-0616
DOI:10.1016/j.ijlcj.2018.12.003