Exploring the Determinants of Citizens’ Compliance with COVID-19 Regulations: Legitimacy Versus Fear

This paper explores factors shaping citizens’ obligation to comply with COVID-19 prevention strategies, such as mandatory mask-wearing and recommended social distancing, contact limitation, and stay-at-home measures. The central focus is to assess the relationship between dimensions of state authori...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Gurinskaya, Anna (Author) ; Nalla, Mahesh (Author) ; Paek, Seung Y. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
In: Criminal justice review
Year: 2024, Volume: 49, Issue: 2, Pages: 156-174
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Keywords:
comparative crime/justice
police processes
law enforcement/security
police culture/accountability
Description
Summary:This paper explores factors shaping citizens’ obligation to comply with COVID-19 prevention strategies, such as mandatory mask-wearing and recommended social distancing, contact limitation, and stay-at-home measures. The central focus is to assess the relationship between dimensions of state authorities’ legitimacy (normative alignment, obligation to obey, and support for COVID-19 mitigation mandates) and fear factors (risk of sanctions and infection) on citizens’ willingness to comply with COVID-19 mandates. Data for the study came from 508 respondents from Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg—in May 2020, when the COVID-19 regional legislation that mandated citizens to wear masks in public went into effect. Overall, our findings suggest that normative alignment and obligation to obey do not directly influence compliance but have an impact through support for regulations. Additionally, fear factors of perceived police sanctions, COVID-19 infection, and self-morality were positively related to compliance.
ISSN:1556-3839
DOI:10.1177/07340168231190471