Abstract
The focus of this study is to examine citizen satisfaction with the police. Specifically, the authors aim to understand the factors that determine citizen satisfaction with police services in India, a former English colony and a relatively new republic that has achieved a significant economic development in recent decades. Findings from analysis of a convenience sample (N = 845) obtained from four Northern states in India suggest that perceived procedural fairness, fear of crime, and age of the respondents predict satisfaction with police services. Moreover, perceived professionalism of police officers is found to increase their perceived procedural fairness.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, C. J., & Tverdova, Y. V. (2003). Corruption, political allegiances, and attitudes towards government in contemporary democracies. American Journal of Political Science, 47(1), 91–109.
Arnold, D. (1986). Police power and colonial rule, madras, 1859–1947. USA: Oxford University Press.
Barnes, T. (2015). Informal labour in urban India: three cities, three journeys. New York: Routledge.
Baron, R. M., Kenny, D., & A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182.
Bauman, Z. (1997). Postmodernity and its discontents. New York: New York University Press.
Bayley, D. H. (1969). The police and political development in India. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bayley, D. H. (2001). Democratizing the police abroad: what to do and how to do it (p. 3). US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.
Belur, J. (2009). Police use of deadly force police perceptions of a culture of approval. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 25(2), 237–252.
Belur, J. (2010). Why do the police use deadly force? Explaining police encounters in Mumbai. British Journal of Criminology, 50(2), 320–341.
Brogden, M. (1987). The emergence of the police—the colonial dimension. The British Journal of Criminology, 27(1), 4–14.
Brown, B., & Benedict, W. R. (2002). Perceptions of the police. Policing, 25(3), 543.
Cao, L., Frank, J., & Cullen, F. T. (1996). Race, community context and confidence in the police. American Journal of Police, 15(1), 3–22.
Cheurprakobkit, S. (2000). Police-citizen contact and police performance: attitudinal differences between Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Journal of Criminal Justice, 28(4), 325–336.
Chockalingam, K., & Srinivasan, M. (2008). Perception of victim treatment by police and courts: a study among university students in India and Japan. Temida, 11(3), 63–78.
Cordner, G. (1995). Community policing: elements and effects. Police Forum, 5(3), 1–8.
Das, D. K., & Verma, A. (1998). The armed police in the British colonial tradition: the Indian perspective. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 21(2), 354–367.
Dasgupta, S. (2016). “Why police reforms don’t take off in India.” Swarajya <http://swarajyamag.com/ideas/why-police-reforms-dont-take-off-in-india> Retrieved February, 29, 2016.
Dhillon, K. S. (2005). Police and politics in India: colonial concepts, democratic compulsions, India Police 1947–2002. Manohar Publishers.
Diaz, S. M. (1989). Public expectations, perceptions and attitudes to police in India. Indian Journal of Criminology, 17(1), 42–52.
Frank, J., Smith, B. W., & Novak, K. J. (2005). Exploring the basis of citizens’ attitudes toward the police. Police Quarterly, 8(2), 206–228.
Fried, B. J., Lagunes, P., & Venkataramani, A. (2010). Corruption and inequality at the crossroad: a multimethod study of bribery and discrimination in Latin America. Latin American Research Review, 45(1), 76–97.
Fyfe, N. R. (2013). Complex transition and uncertain trajectories: reflections on recent developments in police professionalism. Journal of Workplace Learning, 25(6), 407–420.
Gilley, B. (2006). The meaning and measure of state legitimacy: results for 72 countries. European Journal of Political Research, 45(3), 499–525.
Goldsmith, A. (2005). Police reform and the problem of trust. Theoretical Criminology, 9(4), 443–470.
Goldstein, H. (1977). Policing a free society. Cambridge: Ballinger Pub. Co..
Hills, A. (1996). Towards a critique of policing and national development in Africa. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 34(2), 271–291.
Hinds, L., & Murphy, K. (2007). Public satisfaction with police: using procedural justice to improve police legitimacy. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 40(1), 27–42.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1998). Fit indices in covariance structure modeling: Sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3(4), 424–453.
Huebner, B. M., Schafer, J. A., & Bynum, T. S. (2004). African American and White perceptions of police services: within- and between-group variation. Journal of Criminal Justice, 32(2), 123–135.
Hurst, Y. G., & Frank, J. (2000). How kids view cops: the nature of juvenile attitudes toward the police. Journal of Criminal Justice, 28(3), 189–202.
Hwang, E.-G., McGarrell, E. F., & Benson, B. L. (2005). Public satisfaction with the South Korean police: the effect of residential location in a rapidly industrializing nation. Journal of Criminal Justice, 33(6), 585–599.
Jauregui, B. (2013). Beatings, beacons, and big men: police disempowerment and delegitimation in India. Law & Social Inquiry, 38(3), 643–669.
Jauregui, B. (2014). Police and legal patronage in northern India. In A. Piliavsky (Ed.), Patronage as politics in South Asia (pp. 237–258). New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.
Jiang, S., Sun, I. Y., & Wang, J. (2012). Citizens’ satisfaction with police in Guangzhou, China. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 35(4), 801–821.
Kably, L. (2017). India has highest bribery rate among 16 Asia Pacific countries: transparency International. Times of India, March 7. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-has-highest-bribery-rate-among-16-asia-pacific-countries-says-transparency-international-report/articleshow/57508800.cms Retrieved March 7, 2017.
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A., & Mastruzzi, M. (2009). Governance matters VIII: aggregate and individual governance indicators, 1996-2008. Retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/4170/WPS4978.pdf. Accessed July 1, 2016.
Killingray, D. (1991). Guarding the extending frontier: policing the gold coast, 1865–1913. In D. M. Anderson & D. Killingray (Eds.), Policing the empire: government, authority and control, 1830–1940 (pp. 106–125). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Kline, R. B. (2011). Principles and practices of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.
Madan, M., & Nalla, M. K. (2015). Exploring citizen satisfaction with police in India: the role of procedural justice, police performance, professionalism, and integrity. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 38(1), 86–101.
Marx, G. T. (2001). Police and democracy. In M. Amir & S. Eisntein (Eds.), Policing, security and democracy: theory and practice (pp. 35–45). Office of International Criminal Justice: Huntsville.
Nalla, M. K., & Madan, M. (2012). Determinants of citizens’ perceptions of police–community cooperation in India: implications for community policing. Asian Journal of Criminology, 7(4), 277–294.
Nalla, M. K., & Mamayek, C. (2013). Democratic policing, police accountability, and citizen oversight in Asia: an exploratory study. Police Practice and Research, 14(2), 117–129.
National Police Commission. (1981). First report of National Police Commission (1st ed.p. 22). New Delhi: Government of India.
Payne, B. K., & Gainey, R. R. (2007). Attitudes about the police and neighborhood safety in disadvantaged neighborhoods the influence of criminal victimization and perceptions of a drug problem. Criminal Justice Review, 32(2), 142–155.
Raghavan, R. K. (1989). Indian police, problems, planning & perspectives. New Delhi: Manohar Publications.
Reiner, R. (2010). The politics of the police (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Reisig, M. D., & Correia, M. E. (1997). Public evaluations of police performance: an analysis across three levels of policing. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 20(2), 311–325.
Reisig, M. D., & Parks, R. B. (2002). Satisfaction with police: what matters? Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.
Rotberg, R. I. (2002). The new nature of nation-state failure. Washington Quarterly, 25(3), 83–96.
Sajeesh, P. K. (1997). On highway of corruption, Chennai police play a different card-game. New Delhi: Indian Express.
Singh, P. (2002). “Special focus on police reforms-II: field reports Indian police: from where do we start the reform process? The problem of pucca and kacha police”, The Tribune. https://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20021124/edit.htm#1. Accessed October 15, 2014.
Skogan, W. G. (2005). Citizen satisfaction with police encounters. Police Quarterly, 8(3), 298–321.
Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equation models. Sociological Methodology, 13, 290–312.
Subramanian, K. S. (2007). Political violence and the police in India. Delhi: Sage.
Sunshine, J., & Tyler, T. R. (2003). The role of procedural justice and legitimacy in shaping public support for policing. Law & Society Review, 37(3), 513–548.
Tankebe, J. (2008). Colonialism, legitimating, and policing in Ghana. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 36(1), 67–84.
Tankebe, J. (2010). Public confidence in the police: testing the effects of public experiences of police corruption in Ghana. British Journal of Criminology, 50(2), 296–319.
Transparency International. (2016). Corruption perceptions index 2014: results. Retrieved from http://www.transparency.org/cpi2014/results.
Tyler, T. R. (2000). Social justice: Outcome and procedure. International journal of psychology, 35(2):117–125
Tyler, T. R. (2005). Policing in Black and White: ethnic group differences in trust and confidence in the police. Police Quarterly, 8(3), 322–342.
Tyler, T. R. (2006). Psychological perspectives on legiatimacy and legitimation. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 375–400.
Tyler, T. R., & Lind, E. (1992). A relational model of authority in groups. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 11–191). New York: Academic Press.
Verma, A. (1999). Cultural roots of police corruption in India. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 22(3), 264–279.
Verma, A., & Gavirneni, S. (2006). Measuring police efficiency in India: an application of data envelopment analysis. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 29(1), 125–145.
Vinod Kumar, T. K. (2014). Differing services, rising expectations, and greater demands: patterns in variations of police-public dynamics across areas with conventional and community policing in India. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 37(1), 170–189.
Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society: an outline of interpretive sociology. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Weitzer, R., & Tuch, S. A. (2005). Determinants of public satisfaction with the police. Police Quarterly, 8(3), 279–297.
Wilson, R. K. (1981). Citizen coproduction as a mode of participation: conjectures and. Journal of Urban Affairs, 3(4), 37–49.
Wu, Y., & Sun, I. Y. (2009). Citizen trust in police: the case of China. Police Quarterly, 12(2), 170–191.
Wu, Y., & Sun, I. Y. (2010). Perceptions of police: an empirical study of Chinese college students. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 33(1), 93–113.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Partial support for the study came from the Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID) at Michigan State University.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nalla, M.K., Hamm, J. & Paek, S. Is Police Integrity an Important Predictor of Citizen Satisfaction in Police in Post-colonial Emerging Democracies? The Case of India. Asian Criminology 13, 19–34 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-017-9254-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-017-9254-9