Police self-legitimacy and democratic orientations: Assessing shared values

Using a sample of frontline police officers from several mid-sized municipal police departments in the United States, this study explores the relationships between frontline police officers’ self-legitimacy, organizational fit, moral alignment with policed communities, and attitudes toward democrati...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: White, David R. (Author) ; Kyle, Michael J. (Author) ; Schafer, Joseph A. 1973- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
In: International journal of police science & management
Year: 2021, Volume: 23, Issue: 4, Pages: 431-444
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Keywords:
Value congruence
democratic policing
Police self-legitimacy
Description
Summary:Using a sample of frontline police officers from several mid-sized municipal police departments in the United States, this study explores the relationships between frontline police officers’ self-legitimacy, organizational fit, moral alignment with policed communities, and attitudes toward democratic policing principles. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling, the analysis frames democratic policing using a formative latent construct to test several hypotheses. The results support a direct positive relationship between self-legitimacy and attitudes toward democratic policing, and suggest the relationship is partially mediated by officers' perceptions of moral alignment with their policed communities. The results further demonstrate that self-legitimacy is significantly related to organizational fit, but organizational fit does not appear to mediate the relationship between self-legitimacy and attitudes toward democratic policing.
ISSN:1478-1603
DOI:10.1177/14613557211032603