Police Legitimacy and Compliance with the Law among Chinese Youth

• In Event: ACCCJ China, Young People and the State

Abstract

The process-based model of policing garnered considerable support in the discourse on police legitimacy. However, findings are largely based in Western contexts. Additionally, little attention has been given to the model advanced by Tyler (1990) that police legitimacy helps to promote compliance with consideration to the recent conceptualization by Tankebe (2013). Methods: Using a high school sample (N=711) from China, the current study follows Tankebe (2013) on the multi-dimensions of legitimacy measures and examines its role in youth support to the police, and whether through such support, legitimacy helps predict youth compliance with the law. Results: Findings indicate that procedural justice and police lawfulness are strong predictors of youth support to the police, and this support positively predicts the relationship between legitimacy and compliance. Distributive fairness exerts an independent effect on compliance while having been questioned by the police is negatively related to compliance. Conclusions: The present study is among the first to examine the issue of police legitimacy and compliance using an Asian sample. Findings provide evidence for the key role of police legitimacy in such cultural context, and support to the police is a strong predictor of compliance independent of legitimacy measures among youth.

Authors

• Siyu Liu, Penn State Harrisburg

• Jianhong Liu, University of Macau