Does the Fear of Crime Erode Public Confidence in Policing?

Jackson, Jonathan; Bradford, Ben; Hohl, Katrin; Farrall, Stephen

doi:10.1093/police/pan079

Cited by 78 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The 2003/2004 BCS did not field questions that covered specific dimensions of effectiveness, fairness and community engagement (see Bradford, Jackson and Stanko 2009), unfortunately. However the global measure is assumed to tap into an amalgam of effectiveness, fairness and community engagement (for evidence on this see Jackson, et al. 2009).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crime, policing and social order: on the expressive nature of public confidence in policing

Jackson

Bradford

2009

British Journal of Sociology

262

198

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Public confidence in policing is receiving increasing attention from UK social scientists and policy-makers. The criminal justice system relies on legitimacy and consent to an extent unlike other public services; public support is vital if the police and other criminal justice agencies are to function both effectively and in accordance with democratic norms. Yet we know little about the forms of social perception that stand prior to public confidence and police legitimacy. Drawing on data from the 2003/2004 British Crime Survey and the 2006/2007 London Metropolitan Police Safer Neighbourhoods Survey, this paper shows that people think about their local police in ways less to do with the risk of victimisation (instrumental concerns about personal safety) and more to do with judgements about social cohesion and moral consensus (expressive concerns about neighbourhood stability, cohesion and loss of collective authority). Across England and Wales the police are not primarily seen as providers of a narrow sense of personal security, held responsible for crime and safety. Instead the police stand as symbolic 'guardians' of social stability and order, held responsible for community values and informal social controls. We also show that public confidence in the London Metropolitan Police Service expresses broader social anxieties about long-term social change. We finish our paper with some thoughts on a sociological analysis of public confidence, police legitimacy and the cultural place of policing: confidence (and perhaps ultimately the legitimacy of the police) might just be wrapped up in broader public concerns about social order and moral consensus.Key words: Public confidence in policing; fear of crime; policing; legitimacy; disorder; social cohesion; community efficacy 3 'The paradox is that not all that is policing lies in the police, to paraphrase Durkheim on the contract. The police will appear more successful the less they are actually necessary. The sources of order lie outside the ambit of the police, in the political economy and culture of a society … Subtle, informal social controls, and policing processes embedded in other institutions, regulate most potential deviance. When these informal control processes are successful, the police will appear highly effective in crime prevention, and deal effectively and legitimately with the crime and disorder that do occur.' (Reiner 2000: xi).

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8 8 We should add that the core finding (that public perceptions of neighbourhood disorder and social cohesion are more strongly associated with confidence in policing than fear of crime) replicate across numerous sweeps of the British Crime Survey (Jackson et al. 2009).…”

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confidence: 99%

Crime, policing and social order: on the expressive nature of public confidence in policing

Jackson

Bradford

2009

British Journal of Sociology

262

198

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“…This measurement of citizen trust reflects an expressive model of trust proposed by Tyler and Boeckmann (1997), and further developed by Jackson, et al (2009), which suggests that citizens' base their police performance evaluation on the extent to which they believe the police are tackling crime and where they are considered guardians of citizens' 21 rights and lawful values (Jackson and Sunshine, 2007;Jackson and Bradford, 2008;Jackson et al, 2009). …”

Section: Low Trust (L-trust)mentioning

confidence: 91%

Do the citizens of Europe trust their police?

Barton

Beynon

2015

International Journal of Emergency Services

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“…It may especially be due to the fact that in most cases we operate with a cross-sectional data where identifying causal links is rather questionable. It is, however, confirmed by a number of authors (Garofalo, 1981;Chanley, Rudolph, & Rahn, 2000;Jackson, Bradford, Hohl, & Farrall, 2009;Jackson & Stafford, 2009;Liska, Sanchirico, & Reed, 1988;Williams, Singh, & Singh, 1994) that fear of crime can lead to various social problems ranging from lower interpersonal and institutional trust to change in behavioral patterns and lifestyle or worse integration into the society.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life satisfaction and happiness: discussing the impact of fear of crime and victimization

Krulichová¹

2018

Auc Philosophica Et Historica

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Subjective well-being is usually studied with respect to marital and occupational status, income or subjective health. Conversely, research examining the relationship between this phenomenon and crime related factors is still relatively limited. This study therefore aims to extent the current knowledge in this area. Using data from the fifth wave of the European Social Survey for the Czech Republic, in which 2386 respondents participated, we conduct a hierarchical regression analysis to find out to what extent victimization experience and fear of crime influence life satisfaction and happiness of Czechs. The results of the analysis reveal a direct relationship between fear of crime and subjective well-being. On the contrary, victimization affects life satisfaction and happiness indirectly via the fear of crime. Surprisingly, a decrease in life satisfaction is greater for fearful men than fearful women, whereas there are no gender differences regarding the fear of crime -happiness link.

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Does the Fear of Crime Erode Public Confidence in Policing?

Cited by 78 publications

References 25 publications

Crime, policing and social order: on the expressive nature of public confidence in policing

Crime, policing and social order: on the expressive nature of public confidence in policing

Do the citizens of Europe trust their police?

Life satisfaction and happiness: discussing the impact of fear of crime and victimization

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