Neighborhood Social Control and Police Legitimacy: Examining the Empirical Relationship Using Data from China

• In Event: Perceptions of Police Across Local, State, and International Communities

Abstract

This study examines the influence of different forms of neighborhood social control on police legitimacy in the Chinese social context. Using survey data collected from a sample of 2,245 urban residents in China, this study demonstrates the significant influences of all three forms of social control including collective efficacy, semi-public control and public control on police trustworthiness and obligation to obey, the two dimensions of police legitimacy. Our analysis also revealed a moderation effect of semi-public control—a unique form of neighborhood social control in the Chinese communities—on the relationships between the other two forms of social control, namely collective efficacy and public control, and police legitimacy. These findings offer insights into the neighborhood dynamics of police legitimacy and have important implications for direction of efforts to improve police legitimacy.

Authors

• Guangzhen Wu, University of Utah

• Jianhong Liu, The University of Macau