Objectives: Democratic policing involves an ongoing dialogue between officers and citizens about what it means to wield legitimate authority. Most of the criminological literature on police legitimacy has focused on citizens’ perceptions of this dialogue—that is, audience legitimacy. Consequently, we know little about how officers perceive their legitimacy in the eyes of the public and the antecedents of such perceptions. Pulling together separate strands of literature pertaining to citizen demeanor, hostile media perceptions, and danger perception theory, we propose and test a theoretical model of perceived audience legitimacy. Method: We conducted two separate studies: the first a survey of 546 officers working at a southern U.S. agency and the second a survey of a national probability sample of 665 executives and high-ranking officers. Results: Local violent crime rates, but not minority group size or growth, are associated with lower perceived audience legitimacy. Additionally, recent experiences with citizen disrespect and global perceptions of citizen animus are both inversely associated with perceived audience legitimacy. The perceived hostility of local, but not national, media coverage is also associated with lower perceived audience legitimacy. Conclusions: Our results suggest a need for additional research that explores whether the antecedents of audience legitimacy indirectly affect police behaviors, like the use of force.

中文翻译：

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检验听众合法性的理论模型：警民关系对话模型中被忽视的联系

目标：民主警务涉及官员与公民之间持续的对话，以传达行使合法权力的含义。关于警察合法性的大多数犯罪学文献都集中在公民对这种对话的理解上，即观众的合法性。因此，我们几乎不了解军官如何在公众以及这种观念的前因中感知其合法性。将有关公民举止，敌对媒体知觉和危险知觉理论的不同文献汇总在一起，我们提出并检验了感知到的观众合法性的理论模型。方法：我们进行了两项单独的研究：第一项是对在美国南部机构工作的546名官员的调查，第二项是对665名高管和高级官员的全国概率样本的调查。结果：当地的暴力犯罪率与少数群体的规模或增长无关，而与较低的受众合法性相关。此外，最近公民不尊重的经历和公民对动物无知的全球认识都与观众的合法性成反比。人们对地方媒体而不是国家媒体的敌意也与较低的听众合法性有关。结论：我们的结果表明需要进行更多的研究，以探讨观众合法性的前身是否间接影响警察的行为，例如使用武力。公民不尊重的最新经验以及对公民厌恶行为的全球认​​识都与观众的合法性成反比。人们对地方媒体而不是国家媒体的敌意也与较低的听众合法性有关。结论：我们的结果表明需要进行更多的研究，以探讨观众合法性的前身是否间接影响警察的行为，例如使用武力。公民不尊重的最新经验以及对公民厌恶行为的全球认​​识都与观众的合法性成反比。人们对地方媒体而不是国家媒体的敌意也与较低的听众合法性有关。结论：我们的结果表明需要进行更多的研究，以探讨观众合法性的前身是否间接影响警察的行为，例如使用武力。