Going Outside the Law: The Role of the State in Shaping Attitudes to Private Acts of Violence

Abstract

Why do people believe that violence is acceptable? In this paper we study people's normative beliefs about the acceptability of violence to achieve social control (as a substitute for the police, for self-protection and the resolution of disputes) and social change (through violent protests and acts to achieve political goals). Addressing attitudes towards violence among young men from various ethnic minority communities in London, we find that procedural justice is strongly correlated with police legitimacy, and that positive judgments about police legitimacy predicts more negative views about the use of violence. We conclude with the idea that police legitimacy has an additional, hitherto unrecognized, empirical property -by constituting the belief that the police monopolise rightful force in society, legitimacy can create a 'crowding out' effect on positive views of private violence. [131 words]

Public support for vigilantism, confidence in police and police responsiveness

“…These findings match those of the two empirical studies on public support for vigilantism that we found (Tankebe 2009b, Jackson et al 2012b). …”

“…The study by Jackson et al (2012b), as discussed earlier, suggests that perceived police legitimacy includes the public recognition of police monopoly over violence. Are attitudes towards vigilantism also related to people's respect for the police monopoly on the use of force?…”

“…This overlap may at least partially explain the reported relation between confidence and support for vigilantism. Additionally, just like the study by Jackson et al (2012b), no distinction was made between specific and diffuse confidence in police. Lastly, Ghana is a country where vigilante violence is widespread, and as such these findings are not necessarily generalisable to developed countries such as the Netherlands.…”

“…The most recent study by Jackson et al (2012b) relates normative judgments about the state to normative attitudes regarding three types of violence. Respondents were young males from various ethnic minority communities in London.…”