What Do We Know About Public Willingness To Empower Police?: A Review Of The Literature

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

The past decade has seen a rise in public and political discourse regarding the powers of law enforcement. Those critical of law enforcement have sought to defund and depower police, while other maintain that police require sufficient financial and legal power to ensure public safety. The current study aims to review extant research on public willingness to empower police, using articles which cite Sunshine and Tyler’s (2003) seminal piece, “The Role of Procedural Justice and Legitimacy in Shaping Public Support for Policing.” The framework developed by Sunshine and Tyler contends that when the public views the police as more legitimate, they are then more willing to empower law enforcement. Preliminary results indicate a positive link between police legitimacy and police empowerment. Future research should be conducted to further assess the empowerment hypothesis, including the development of more diverse measures of empowerment, and the incorporation of additional social, psychological, and contextual factors which may shape police empowerment.

Authors

• Amanda Connella, University of South Florida

• Richard K. Moule Jr., University of South Florida