ABSTRACT

In 2012, Bottoms and Tankebe put forward the notion that the legitimacy of criminal justice agencies is in flux and resembles an ongoing conversation between ‘power-holders’ and their ‘audience’. However, their dialogic approach has yet to be studied in empirical research in a policing and social media context. This paper provides an original contribution to their framework and illustrates the dynamic nature of police legitimacy on social media. Extensive fieldwork was carried out in Scotland and involved observation (n=134 hours) and semi-structured interviews (n=40) with police officers and civilian staff with social media duties, and focus groups with citizens (n=22). The research findings show that police legitimacy on social media is dynamic and has four key dimensions. Firstly, police officers and civilian staff cultivate their own sense of self-legitimacy on social media in accordance with the credibility of police information and their expertise in policing. Secondly, police officers and civilian staff communicate their legitimacy to citizens on social media drawing on formal and informal styles. Thirdly, citizens make assessments about police legitimacy on social media in connection to how they understand face-to-face encounters with the police, as the police themselves internalise these judgements. Fourthly, when citizens challenge police legitimacy on social media, officers and civilian staff reconstruct and at times reassert their legitimacy.

摘要

2012 年，Bottoms 和 Tankebe 提出了刑事司法机构的合法性不断变化的概念，类似于“掌权者”和他们的“观众”之间的持续对话。然而，他们的对话方法尚未在警务和社交媒体背景下的实证研究中得到研究。本文为他们的框架提供了原创性的贡献，并说明了社交媒体上警察合法性的动态性质。在苏格兰进行了广泛的实地考察，包括观察（n = 134 小时）和半结构化访谈（n = 40）对警察和具有社交媒体职责的文职人员以及与公民的焦点小组（n=22)。研究结果表明，社交媒体上的警察合法性是动态的，具有四个关键维度。首先，警察和文职人员根据警察信息的可信度和他们的警务专业知识，在社交媒体上培养自己的自我合法性。其次，警察和文职人员利用正式和非正式的风格在社交媒体上向公民传达他们的合法性。第三，公民在社交媒体上对警察的合法性进行评估，与他们如何理解与警察面对面的接触有关，因为警察自己会将这些判断内化。第四，当公民在社交媒体上质疑警察的合法性时，官员和文职人员会重建并有时重申他们的合法性。