Degree
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
Major(s)
Criminology
Document Type
Immediate Open Access
Abstract
Trust in the legitimacy of law enforcement is necessary for effective policing. Literature focuses in on three broad areas in its discussion of trust in the police; general feelings of social trust toward one’s community, belief in absence or presence of procedural justice, and perceptions of police effectiveness in the neighborhood in terms of disorder and incivilities. In this paper, I use data from the World Values Survey collected in 2011 in the United States to examine these correlates of trust in the police by way of logistic regression models. I find that, in accordance with recent scholarship, individuals’ perceptions of procedural justice have the greatest impact on one’s trust in the police. These findings should impart legislators to give substantial weight to potential policies such as the “Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act of 2018” if the US wishes to improve its policing.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.54718/JOPB6730
Date Defended
5-1-2019
Thesis Director
Perry, Ashley
Second Committee Member
Peterson, Lindsey
Third Committee Member
Oppenheimer, Seth
Recommended Citation
Warner, Mariah K., "Citizen trust of the police in the United States: How bad is it, and what can we do to fix it" (2019). Honors Theses. 47.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/honorstheses/47
