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1 – 10 of over 5000Abstract
Purpose
Following social disorganization theory and the process-based model of policing, the present study aims to examine how characteristics of communities are meaningful in shaping citizens' willingness to work with the police in urban China.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on survey data from Shanghai, China, the study adopts a generalized hierarchical linear modeling (GHLM) approach to examine the effects of both individual- and neighborhood-level predictors on the outcome, while taking into consideration the unobserved additional neighborhood-level variations.
Findings
Results suggest potential need of the process-based model to be modified in a Chinese context in that while police presence matters, measures on legitimacy are nonsignificant in shaping willingness to help the police, after controlling for neighborhood characteristics. More importantly, collective efficacy at the neighborhood level is related positively to residents' willingness to work with the police. Constant attention should be paid to the promotion of a collaborative and collectively caring environment, which can contribute to better coordination with the police, and greater willingness to be part of the larger cause of public safety.
Originality/value
The paper advances the scholarship with multi-level modeling and the role of communities in building stronger relationship with the police.
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This study aims to investigate critical differences between police officer willingness to use and recommend an employee assistance program (EAP) to a peer, including the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate critical differences between police officer willingness to use and recommend an employee assistance program (EAP) to a peer, including the relationship between officer perceptions of macro-level organizational support and micro-level EAP support.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 213 police officers from a large, urban police department in the Northeast United States of America is used to evaluate the relationship between officer perceptions of the EAP and the officers' willingness to use and recommend the EAP to peers. Generalized linear regression models are used to evaluate the moderating effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on perceived EAP support.
Findings
The findings of this study suggest that POS strongly predicts willingness to use the EAP, but POS has no significant relationship with willingness to recommend the EAP. There is evidence that POS moderates the relationship of EAP support on willingness to recommend the EAP to a peer. When POS decreases, the relationship of EAP support with willingness to recommend the EAP to peers becomes stronger.
Research limitations/implications
The current study is limited by the study's focus on only one police department and the department's use of cross-sectional data, which may limit the generalizability of the results to agencies that differ in size and type.
Practical implications
This research has practical implications for those who seek to improve officer receptivity to mental health support and improve the quality of police services provided to the public. The findings demonstrate that improving officer willingness to recommend the EAP to peers may be a more sustainable pathway to addressing officer mental health than willingness to use the EAP considering the current movement toward police reform.
Originality/value
The research unveils significant differences in police officer decision-making between using the EAP and recommending it to a peer. The research also adds empirical evidence to existing research on the role of POS in policing and the altruistic, peer-focused nature of the police subculture.
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Erica Ceka and Natalia Ermasova
This study investigates the relationship between police officer's willingness to use Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and their perceptions about stress and help-seeking in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the relationship between police officer's willingness to use Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and their perceptions about stress and help-seeking in policing, considering the effect of gender and ethnicity in this association.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 431 Illinois police officers is used to measure officer's perceptions about help-seeking and organizational stressors. The conditional PROCESS modeling (Hayes, 2012) was employed to analyze the hypothesized mediation model. The ANOVA test was used to determent the effect of gender and ethnicity on organizational stressors in policing.
Findings
Findings suggest police officer's willingness to use EAP is shaped by the perceived negative effect of stress on promotion through the mediator, confidence in their departments to receive adequate assistance, with noticeable gender and ethnic differences. The analysis demonstrated that female police officers feel stressed because of unfair promotional opportunities and poor relationships with supervisors. Female police officers are less willing to apply for the EAP services to mitigate stress than male police officers. The findings reveal that ethnicity is a significant predictor of the police officers' willingness to apply for EAP services to mitigate stress.
Research limitations/implications
The current study is limited by its focus on only one police department located in the Illinois, USA. This may limit the generalizability of the results. The cross-sectional nature of data used to draw conclusions and variation in departments' characteristics and compositions could influence results.
Practical implications
The research has practical implications for those who are interested to understand organizational stressors and perceptions on help-seeking in policing. This study provides suggestions for police administrators to make effort in creating more sensitive working environment to reduce stressors for female police officers and representatives of ethnic groups.
Originality/value
The research unveils the significance of officer's confidence in their departments in modifying their willingness to use EAP, revealing the effect of organizational stressors on confidence. The study adds empirical evidence to existing research on impact of gender and ethnicity on their willingness to use EAP.
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Smart Egwu Otu, Ivan Sun, Charles Ikechukwu Akor, Macpherson Uchenna Nnam, Yuning Wu and Gilbert Aro
This study aims to assess the direct relationships between internal support and job satisfaction and voluntary assistance and their indirect connections through work–family…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the direct relationships between internal support and job satisfaction and voluntary assistance and their indirect connections through work–family conflict among Nigerian police officers.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from police officers in a midsized state police command in Ebonyi state in Nigeria. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the connections between supervisor support, peer support, work–family conflict, job satisfaction and voluntary assistance.
Findings
Police officers with stronger supervisor and co-worker support are more inclined to express higher job satisfaction, whereas such support is not linked to officers' willingness to help fellow officers. Work–family conflict mediates the relationship between co-worker support and voluntary assistance. Stronger peer support is accompanied by higher work–family conflict, which then is linked to greater helping behavior.
Originality/value
Despite many studies on police job satisfaction, research on correlates of job satisfaction in an African context remains severely under-investigated. This study represents one of the first attempts to assess police proactive helping behavior and job satisfaction in Nigeria.
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Kristina Murphy, Natasha S. Madon and Adrian Cherney
Procedural justice is important for fostering peoples’ willingness to cooperate with police. Theorizing suggests this relationship results because procedural justice enhances…
Abstract
Purpose
Procedural justice is important for fostering peoples’ willingness to cooperate with police. Theorizing suggests this relationship results because procedural justice enhances perceptions that the police are legitimate and entitled to be supported. The purpose of this paper is to examine how legitimacy perceptions moderate the effect of procedural justice policing on Muslims’ willingness to cooperate with police.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from 800 Muslims in Australia are used.
Findings
This study shows Muslims’ procedural justice perceptions are positively associated with two types of cooperation: willingness to cooperate with police in general crime control efforts; and willingness to report terror threats to police. Muslims’ perceptions of police legitimacy and law legitimacy also influence willingness to cooperate. Specifically, police legitimacy is more important for predicting general willingness to cooperate with police, while law legitimacy is more important for predicting Muslims’ willingness to report terror threats. Importantly, legitimacy perceptions moderate the relationship between procedural justice and both types of cooperation. Specifically, procedural justice promotes cooperation more strongly for those who question the legitimacy of police or the legitimacy of counter-terrorism laws, but the moderation effects differ across the two cooperation contexts. The findings have implications for procedural justice scholarship and for counter-terrorism policing.
Originality/value
The current paper examines an under-explored aspect of legitimacy; it examines police legitimacy perceptions, but also examines how people view the legitimacy of laws police enforce (i.e. law legitimacy). It is argued that perceptions about law legitimacy can also impact people’s willingness to cooperate with police.
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While the significance of public cooperation for police effectiveness is widely acknowledged, less is known about factors associated with cooperation in hate crime cases. The…
Abstract
Purpose
While the significance of public cooperation for police effectiveness is widely acknowledged, less is known about factors associated with cooperation in hate crime cases. The current study aims to explore how individuals’ perspectives on police legitimacy, contact experience with police and race/ethnicity shape their willingness to cooperate with police in hate crime incidents.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a sample of 693 college students and was conducted at a public university in the south-central region of the southern United States of America. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were used to examine factors related to willingness to cooperate with police.
Findings
Findings show that those who have a high level of positive perceptions of police legitimacy and those who have a low level of negative personal experience with police reported more willingness to cooperate. Asian respondents were less likely to report that they would cooperate with police compared to white respondents.
Originality/value
This study, emphasizing the relationships between perceived police legitimacy and positive personal experiences with a willingness to cooperate in hate crime cases, has practical implications. The identification of racial/ethnic differences in cooperation attitudes, particularly the lower likelihood of cooperation among Asian respondents, contributed to the current literature and underscores the importance of considering diverse perspectives and outreach efforts.
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Abstract
Purpose
Public cooperation with the police is of great significance in the maintenance of social security and social harmony, but studies investigating the mechanisms of public cooperation with the police in China are scarce. Using survey data obtained from Xiamen, China, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of social capital on willingness to cooperate with the police and their mediating mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
Data with 938 respondents were used in this study. Ordinary least squares regression models were used to test the influence of social capital on the willingness of the Chinese public to cooperate with the police and its mediating mechanisms.
Findings
The results show that associational life participation, social trust and neighborhood cohesion can all enhance public willingness to cooperate with the police by cultivating public spirit or trust in government, whereas participation in community collective resistance is negatively correlated with willingness to cooperate with the police. Theoretical explanations are offered to understand different effects of social capital elements on public cooperation with the police, and possible ways to foster such cooperation are discussed.
Originality/value
This paper takes the lead in examining the effects of social capital on willingness to cooperate with the police and their mediating mechanisms in China.
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Brianna Camero, Karen Cano-Rodriguez, Takudzwa Chawota, Kayon Morgan, Alicen Potts, Monserrat Solorzano-Franco, Charles Klahm IV and Yuning Wu
This study seeks to answer (1) how perceived neighborhood collective efficacy and disorder affect residents' cooperation with the police, both directly and indirectly through…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Hailey Khatchatourian, Grace MacFarland, Mindy Thai, Danika Hickling, Brad Smith and Yuning Wu
While public support for and cooperation with the police has been deemed vital for police effectiveness, what shapes such support and cooperation has not been fully examined. The…
Abstract
Purpose
While public support for and cooperation with the police has been deemed vital for police effectiveness, what shapes such support and cooperation has not been fully examined. The purpose of this study is to explore three perspectives on public cooperation with police simultaneously: (1) police legitimacy, (2) legal cynicism, and (3) neighborhood norms.
Design/methodology/approach
The data used in this study came from a survey conducted with 408 residents across three neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan, in 2009. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to assess the relationship between the three groups of theory-based predictors, representing police legitimacy, legal cynicism, and neighborhood norms, and the dependent variable of cooperation.
Findings
The findings partially support the legitimacy model, as trust in police, but not perceived obligation to obey, predicts cooperation with police. This study provides strong support for the legal cynicism and neighborhood norms perspectives. Specifically, residents who have higher levels of legal cynicism and who report a stronger anti-snitch neighborhood subculture report being less inclined to cooperate with the police.
Originality/value
This study is the first to compare the relative influences of three major perspectives on public cooperation. Future studies should continue to analyze competing theories in explaining public cooperation with the police and determine if findings from this study are applicable to locations outside Detroit.
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Hyeyoung Lim and John J. Sloan
The purpose of this paper is to partially replicate and extend the work of Klockars et al. and others on police integrity by examining how individual, organizational, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to partially replicate and extend the work of Klockars et al. and others on police integrity by examining how individual, organizational, and ecological factors affect police supervisors’ perceptions of police misconduct and willingness to report fellow officers’ misconduct.
Design/methodology/approach
Surveys containing 17 scenarios developed by Klockars et al. (2000, 2004, 2006) were administered to 553 ranking officers attending training at the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas from June 1, 2009 to March 1, 2010 and employed by municipal police departments, county sheriff’s departments, and constable agencies.
Findings
Results suggest that individual and organizational factors affect supervisor willingness to blow the whistle on underling misconduct, although their effects varied by seriousness of the behavior.
Originality/value
The current project partially replicates and extends prior studies of factors affecting police integrity by surveying supervisors, measuring their willingness to whistle blow, and including variables in statistical models that prior studies have not included.
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