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The purpose of the paper is to show that four plausible hypotheses can be formulated (positive linear, negative linear, convex curvilinear, and concave curvilinear) to explain the impact of democratization on the ability of police to produce security.

Multiple regression analyzing measures of police effectiveness from the Executive Opinion Survey (World Economic Forum) and indicators of democratization (Freedom House) for 59 countries was performed to evaluate the four hypotheses.

Results strongly supported the convex curvilinear hypothesis that democracy and police effectiveness maintained a U‐shape association. Undemocratic countries and the advanced democracies experienced the highest levels of police effectiveness, whereas middle‐range countries showed lower ratings of police performance.

Despite initial discontents with the police, emerging democracies could expect improved police effectiveness should they persist in the path of democratic consolidation, which strengthens law enforcement institutions in the long run. The use of cross‐sectional data on business analysts' perceptions precluded causal inferences and restricted the generalizability of the findings. Hypotheses should be tested with longitudinal data from more representative samples in future research.

Most comparative studies of police are qualitative and most quantitative police research focuses on single societies. This cross‐national quantitative comparison of policing analyzed the complex issue of police effectiveness and concluded that sustained global democratization portends transnational convergence in more effective policing.

The purpose and approaches of this article differ from those of prior research in several ways. First, while existing leadership meta-analytic research has focused on the relationship between specific types of leadership and organizational correlates, this study is a comprehensive and systematic meta-study of overall leadership types and organizational effectiveness. Second, while most of the aforementioned previous leadership meta-analysis studies target various countries and organizations, this study focuses on the leadership of the police, especially the South Korean police, and organizational effectiveness. In particular, this study is necessary because leadership meta-analysis studies of police organizations are rare. Third, this study can contribute to the accumulation of leadership knowledge in the context of contingency theory. According to contingency theory, no form of leadership is effective in all situations. Both the environment and organizational factors of leadership have a significant impact on the effectiveness of leadership. In this regard, it is very meaningful to meta-analyze the studies on leadership and organizational effectiveness of the Korean police and interpret the results in conjunction with the Korean national context and the characteristics of the police.

In this study, the authors conduct a meta-analysis of the studies on the leadership and organizational effectiveness of the South Korean police. To select the literature for the meta-analysis, the authors used the Preferred Items for Systematic Views and Meta-analysis procedure. First, 254 papers were searched, of which 133 were published in academic journals and 121 were dissertations. Second, 84 studies were selected, excluding 135 double-discovered studies, 30 studies unrelated to police leadership and 5 undisclosed studies. Finally, the authors checked the abstract and content of the literature. The authors evaluated the quality of the 36 studies that were selected through the above process. The authors estimate the sample size–weighted mean correlation by reflecting the sample size of each study in the converted Fisher's z-value. The final result is presented by reverting to the correlation coefficient for convenience of interpretation. Through this meta-analytic process, the authors estimated the mean effect size of whole leadership on the organizational effectiveness of the Korean police by integrating the effect size of each study.

The findings of this study have the following theoretical and practical implications. First, the results of this study indicate that the above trends in international leadership research have been applied to the Korean police as well and that the above trends in international leadership research have been applied equally to research into the South Korean police. The authors argue that more servant leadership studies are needed on the South Korean police. Second, the results of this study demonstrate that leadership is strongly correlated with organizational effectiveness among the South Korean police as well. Leadership is also found to be significantly positively related to attitude, behavior and satisfaction among the South Korean police. These results suggest that the leadership of police managers is very important for effective organizational management and improved police performance. Third, the results indicate significant differences in the effect sizes of each type of leadership. The largest effect size is the empowering leadership (EML), almost double the smallest effect size, authentic leadership. The results of the current study also indicate that transactional leadership (TSL) has a strong correlation with organizational effectiveness. Advanced research shows a significantly smaller effect than the magnitude of the effect size in this study. The authors examine the powerful effect of EML among the South Korean police from the perspective of organizational culture and the characteristics of the South Korean police. Influenced by social culture, the South Korean police also have hierarchical characteristics and a rigid organizational culture. In addition, although the police have strong discretion due to the nature of policing, individual police officers often have to take responsibility for the consequences of police discretion.

The most significant limitation of the current study is the lack of research using meta-analysis. The meta-analysis of the study was conducted on the police leadership and organizational effectiveness of one country, Korea. This is both a strong and weak point of the study. The lack of effect size on other leadership styles except transformational leadership and TSL can make it difficult to generalize the study results. There are only four samples of effect size, so careful interpretation is needed. This is also the inherent limitation of meta-analysis. After sufficient research is accumulated, it is necessary to re-estimate the effect size in future studies. In this study, the authors found differences in the effect sizes on organizational effectiveness by leadership types among the South Korean police, but more research is needed to determine the cause of the difference. In addition, this meta-analysis has a very high level of heterogeneity. This implies the possibility of various moderators, but the current study does not consider moderators. The authors recommend a continuous study on moderators that play a role in the relationship between police leadership and leadership outcomes.

In this study, the authors found differences in the effect sizes on organizational effectiveness by leadership types among the South Korean police, but more research is needed to determine the cause of the difference. In addition, this meta-analysis has a very high level of heterogeneity. This implies the possibility of various moderators, but the current study does not consider moderators. The authors recommend a continuous study on moderators that play a role in the relationship between police leadership and leadership outcomes.

The authors’ empirical evidence once again supports the claim of leadership contingency theory that leadership is the result of the interaction of factors such as followers, leaders and organizational environments. It is difficult to conclude that the most effective leadership style among the South Korean police is EML. However, the authors’ findings can raise reasonable questions about generalized leadership effects and serve as evidence that the effects of leadership can vary across national and organizational contexts. Nevertheless, the authors can ask reasonable questions about the existence of generalized leadership effects. Furthermore, the authors’ findings can serve as evidence that the effectiveness of leadership can vary depending on cultural and organizational contexts.

Numerous studies have been conducted on leadership and organizational effectiveness. However, meta-analysis studies on the relationship between leadership and organizational effectiveness focusing on certain national police forces have been limited. In this regard, the current study conducted a meta-analysis on the correlation between leadership and organizational effectiveness for South Korean police. While existing leadership meta-analytic research has focused on the relationship between specific types of leadership and organizational correlates, this study is a comprehensive and systematic meta-study of overall leadership types and organizational effectiveness. While most of the aforementioned previous leadership meta-analysis studies target various countries and organizations, this study focuses on the leadership of the police, especially the South Korean police, and organizational effectiveness. Previous research studies on the leadership of the Korean police have not properly considered national and cultural contexts. Most of them have the same limitations, that is, they applied each leadership theories that were developed in foreign countries (especially transformative leadership and transactional leadership) to the Korean police to explain whether each leadership type has a significant relationship with organizational effectiveness. The meta-analysis of this study can contribute to existing literature by overcoming this limitation. In addition, if the authors’ results match the cultural and historical characteristics of Korean police, they can provide evidence of the potential for effective police leadership in each country. The authors can also argue that meta-analysis of police leadership in other countries is necessary.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences in police officers’ attitudes toward citizens between China and Ghana, and explore the extent to which officers’ perceptions of citizens influence their effectiveness and behavior.

In total, 271 Chinese police officers were surveyed representing those attending in-service training program at a national police university in China in 2014, and a random sample of 145 Ghanaian police officers was surveyed in 2013, representing those from five police districts in the Accra region of Ghana Police service.

Results revealed significant perceptual variations across the two countries. While Ghanaian officers were found to have more favorable perceptions of citizens’ cooperation and recognition, Chinese officers reported greater levels of citizens’ compliance and disrespectfulness. Moreover, results indicated significant relationships between officers’ attitudes and their sense of effectiveness and behavior in the two countries.

This study is based on a convenient sample of Chinese police officers, which restricts the generalizability of the results.

Findings offer insights for police administrators to reform the police with a focus on improving police perceptions of citizens.

Although there are a few comparative studies that compare police attitudes toward citizens between developing and developed countries, and between western democracies, there is a profound lack of studies comparing these attitudes between developing/transitional countries. This study is an initial attempt to identify variations in officers’ perceptions of the public between two developing/transitional countries.

This study seeks to answer (1) how perceived neighborhood collective efficacy and disorder affect residents' cooperation with the police, both directly and indirectly through perceptions of the police and (2) how Arab American ethnicity moderates the linkages between perceived collective efficacy, disorder and cooperation.

Relying on survey interview data from a probability sample of 414 residents in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, MI and path model analysis, this study tests an explanatory model of public cooperation with the police that integrates both neighborhood and policing factors.

Perceived neighborhood disorder undermines residents' desires to cooperate, and this influence is chiefly direct. Meanwhile, although no significant total effect, perception of neighborhood collective efficacy does have a positive effect on cooperation through the mediator of positive assessment of police effectiveness. Further, collective efficacy has a direct, positive effect on cooperation among Arab Americans only. Finally, perceptions of police equal treatment and effectiveness, rather than procedural justice, are significant correlates of public cooperation.

This study contributes to the extremely limited literature on policing and Arab American communities. The findings can deepen the understanding on why and for which groups neighborhood context is related to cooperation with the police. Findings can also add to the knowledge base for designing policies and practices that help secure and promote public support and cooperation in both Arab and non-Arab communities.

Policing differs across neighborhoods, but little is known about how context conditions residents’ assessments about police legitimacy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether procedural justice and police effectiveness differently contribute to legitimacy judgments depending on the security risk inherent in the context.

The research applies a series of multi-level regression models using nearly 3,000 surveys of Trinidad and Tobago residents.

Police legitimacy and the conditions that promote legitimacy vary across neighborhoods. In “good” neighborhoods, individuals draw on police effectiveness and procedural justice to infer legitimacy, but in at-risk neighborhoods, residents’ views derive from effectiveness. Procedural justice does not play a significant role.

One implication for police is that the current emphasis on evidence-based policing strategies, especially in high crime neighborhoods, can provide a mechanism to improve the generally negative views about police legitimacy held by those residents. The findings do not imply, however, that police need not be concerned about procedural justice in at-risk neighborhoods. In fact, as police improve their crime prevention prowess, views about how procedurally just their methods are increase in importance.

Prior research addressing the antecedents of legitimacy has focused on individual demographic and attitudinal predictors. Only two prior studies have begun to investigate whether residents of different contexts may form their views based on different antecedents. This study outlines a theoretical basis for why different bases may be expected and then tests those expectations using rigorous statistical analyses.

Neo‐liberal policies have had a profound effect on the organization of policing in Canada by rationalizing provincial and federal initiatives that off‐load policing costs to municipal and regional councils. This paper aims to comparatively analyze the effect of these initiatives on service delivery for regional versus non‐regional police services.

Four measures were used to assess efficiency: per capita cost, cost per criminal code offence, number of officers per 100,000 population, and number of support staff per 100,000 population. Three measures were used to assess effectiveness: violent crime clearance rate, property crime clearance rate, and total criminal code clearance rate.

Analysis of the data reveals that, despite claims surrounding regionalization, regional police services are not demonstrably any more effective or efficient than non‐regional services.

Utilizes official crime data and police expenditure statistics. A national survey of police service delivery and citizen satisfaction is needed. Practical implications – These results can inform municipal and town council decisions about regional (or provincial contract) versus local police service provision. Originality/value – The first comprehensive comparative Canadian study on the efficiency and effectiveness of police regionalization. The article empirically challenges the purported relative effectiveness and efficiency of larger regional police services versus smaller non‐regional services in Canada.

Police legitimacy presents a social value of the institution based on citizens' normative, moral and ethical feelings that they should voluntarily comply with and support the authority of the police. The present study focuses on residents' perceptions of police legitimacy in different settings in Slovenia.

Drawing on data from a survey of 1,022 citizens in Slovenia, this study examined the correlates of police legitimacy and differences in citizen perceptions of police legitimacy in urban, suburban and rural settings.

Multivariate statistical analyses showed that feelings of obligation to obey, trust in police, procedural justice, police effectiveness, relations with police officers and gender influence perceptions of police legitimacy. Significant differences between residents' perceptions of police legitimacy, obligation to obey, trust in police, procedural justice, police effectiveness and legal cynicism in urban, suburban and rural settings were also observed. In general, residents of rural areas were found to have more positive attitudes towards the police than those in urban and suburban settings.

The article is useful for police leaders and practitioners planning policies and training of police officers for democratic policing.

Police legitimacy reflects the legitimacy of governance, as the police are the most visible representatives of the state authority. Therefore, police legitimacy is crucial for policing in urban, suburban and rural settings.

The study presents the first test of police legitimacy in a non-Western cultural environment based on a national sample of citizens, which enables the generalisation of concepts of legitimacy, and its correlates in a different cultural setting. The study also presents the first attempt to test and compare the effect of the settings (i.e. rural, suburban and urban) on variables influencing residents' perceptions of police legitimacy.

While there is a growing body of studies on the people's views of community policing, there have been a very few cross-national studies. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast students’ views on community policing from India and the USA.

The data were from a survey from a total of 434 Indian and 484 US college students.

Punitive orientation had a significant effect on attitudes toward community policing, but was related to an increase in the support in India and reduction of support in the USA. Among the Indian respondents, concern for crime and support for aggressive policing had positive associations with support for community policing, and police involvement in the community had a negative association. Among the US respondents, age, educational level, and perceptions of police effectiveness had positive associations with support for community policing, and holding a punitive orientation had a negative association.

This study represents the attempt to examine Indian perceptions of community policing empirically. Uncovering factors that affect public support for community policing can provide useful references for police administrators to develop policies and practices that encourage more active community involvement in crime control.

The present study aims to examine the relationship between public and informal social control by investigating whether perceptions of neighborhood policing exhibit a positive or negative relationship to informal control. The influence of police‐resident coproduction (police attendance at community meetings, police accessibility, police‐resident problem solving) on informal control is contrasted with general perceptions of police effectiveness and legitimacy.

Survey data from 81 neighborhood leaders representing 81 Portland, OR neighborhoods (i.e. unit of analysis), along with crime and census data is used. Analysis involves multivariate OLS regression and correlations.

A frequency of police attendance at community meetings was negatively related to informal social control, controlling for neighborhood demographics, crime, and social cohesion. Results indicate a community style of policing may not be enough to overcome deeply entrenched attitudes toward the police in the most disadvantaged communities and at worst may discourage informal social control. Perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion and government responsiveness are the best predictors of increased informal social control.

Further research is needed to understand the development of attitudes toward the police, especially in the most disadvantaged communities. The conclusions of the study are limited by the cross sectional design and use of a single neighborhood leader informant.

This paper attempts to identify how clear, tactical methods of collaborating with residents are related to informal social control.

This is one of the few studies to empirically assess whether public social control through neighborhood policing, in particular police‐resident coproduction and police legitimacy, is related to informal social control.

The majority of legitimacy research has been conducted in low-power distance societies such as America, England, Australia, etc. We test the relative impact of normative and instrumental judgments on police legitimacy in a high-power distance society. It is hypothesized that in this context, individuals in high-power distance societies, such as South Korea, will put a larger emphasis on the instrumental model of legitimacy and less on the relational model of legitimacy.

This study examines the pathways to police legitimacy and cooperation. Using a convenience sample of Korean college students, the impact of instrumental and normative pathways on the perception of police legitimacy is examined. Based on Hofstede's (2001) power-distance theory, we hypothesize that South Koreans, with relatively high-power distance, should emphasize the instrumental pathway of police legitimacy more compared to the normative pathway of police legitimacy.

The results indicated that opposite to what we have hypothesized, South Korean college students still emphasized the normative pathways to police legitimacy more importantly. While procedural justice significantly predicted both trustworthiness and obligation to obey the police, police effectiveness only significantly predicted trustworthiness and failed to predict obligation to obey.

The majority of police legitimacy research has been conducted in the Western context. A small amount of research focusing on non-Western settings has been conducted, but still requires more attention. The current research adds to the body of police legitimacy literature in the Korean context. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.