Why do People's complaints still fall on the police? Confidence in the police in Trinidad and Tobago
Introduction
Public confidence in the police is a global issue ( Cao, 2015; Jackson and Bradford, 2010; Morris, 2015). Policing scholars have identified public confidence and support as the most important issue facing law enforcement in the community policing era (Bradford, 2011; Cao et al., 2012; Jackson and Sunshine, 2007; Jang et al., 2010; Ren et al., 2005). Citizens with a lower level of confidence in the police are unwilling to cooperate and support policing activities. For example, they are less likely to request police services, to report crime, to defer to police authority, or to obey laws (Cao et al., 2012; Goudriaan et al., 2006; Hough and Roberts, 2004; Jang et al., 2010). While police agencies from around the word have made efforts to improve public-police relationships, people still express low confidence in the police in many countries (Myhill, 2006; Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, 2009; Rix et al., 2009; World Values Survey Association (WVSA), 2015).
Law enforcement agencies in Caribbean countries have struggled with earning public confidence (Alda et al., 2017; Kuhns et al., 2011; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2012; Youngers, 2004). Although there have been many improvements in policing in the Caribbean, law enforcement agencies in this region have experienced lower levels of public confidence than in other countries (UNDP, 2012; WVSA, 2015). According to WVSA (2015), only 20% of residents in Trinidad and Tobago reported trust in the police, and it was relatively lower in comparison to a global average of 58.7%. More problematically, other reports (UNDP, 2012) indicated that citizens' distrust in the police has been increasing in Trinidad and Tobago. This trend is unexpected given that law enforcement agencies have attempted to improve their public image.
Several studies have shown that factors other than those which relate to traditional police duties (e.g., responses to crime), affect confidence in the police. For example, Jackson and Sunshine (2007) found that people might complain about the police when there are problems regarding living conditions and governmental policies, which are not considered as the primary responsibility of the police. Jang et al. (2010) found that public confidence in the police is driven not only by crime rates (e.g., homicide rate) but also by attitudinal factors (e.g., individual political orientation). As such, people express a lower level of confidence in the police because of social issues which influence public life (Jackson and Sunshine, 2007).
In line with a development of the survey method (i.e. National Victimization Survey) and the growing funds to the projects examining the effectiveness of various elements of criminal justice systems around the world, studies on confidence in the police have been conducted in many countries (e.g., China [Cao and Hou, 2001], Germany [Cao, 2001], Mongolia [Batzeveg et al., 2017], South Africa [Burger, 2011], the United State [Lai and Zhao, 2010], and the United Kingdom [Jackson and Bradford, 2010]). Despite this, most studies regarding confidence in the police have been conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom, thus ignoring potential nuances present in other cultures. Despite the fact that confidence in the police has been an issue for policing in Caribbean countries (Bowling, 2010; Kuhns et al., 2011; Mastrofski and Lum, 2008; UNDP, 2012), few studies have examined the issue of public confidence in the police within this region of the world (e.g., Alda et al., 2017; Johnson et al., 2014; Maguire and Johnson, 2015).
The few Caribbean studies which have looked at confidence in the police have not used the instrumental and expressive models (this will be discussed in the next section). The application of these two models allows for an understanding the factors which lower police confidence, and therefore, also have implications for improving confidence levels. The instrumental and expressive models suggest that crime and other social problems have an impact on confidence in the police and will point to other ‘non-traditional’ variables which could be considered when attempting to enhance police confidence in the Caribbean.
Section snippets
Instrumental and expressive models
Researchers have developed two theoretical frameworks to explain the factors associated with public confidence in the police. These are the instrumental and expressive models (e.g., Bradford et al., 2009; Bradford and Myhill, 2015; Jackson and Bradford, 2009; Jackson et al., 2009; Jang and Hwang, 2014; Sun et al., 2014). Due to the use of different determinants of public confidence in the police, the instrumental and expressive models have been deemed as competing perspectives (Jang and Hwang,
Purpose of the study
Given the lack of policing literature from Caribbean countries (specifically those focused on public confidence in the police) and growing concerns of citizens' confidence in in the Caribbean (Kuhns et al., 2011; Mastrofski and Lum, 2008; UNDP, 2012; WVSA, 2015), it becomes imperative to examine the determinants of confidence in the police. The findings from such research have practical implications for law enforcement agencies in the region and may provide insights which could be useful in
Data
Data for this study were collected as part of a United Nations Development Programme project (UNDP, 2012) which, among other things, looked at crime and security issues in Trinidad and Tobago. The survey instrument collected data in a range of areas including satisfaction with the standard of living, domestic violence, fear of crime and crime victimization, evaluation of governmental agencies and policy preferences. Interviews were conducted with 1595 adults between November 2010 and February
Descriptive and bivariate statistics
As the first step of SEM this study conducted univariate statistical analyses with 18 observed measures. Means, standard deviations, maximum and minimum values, skewness and kurtosis of all observed measures are presented in Table 1. Regarding confidence in the police (CP), all means of these items were above the median (all means > 1.00). However, other observed measures regarding fear of crime (FOC) had low means (all means ≤ 2.65). That is, in general respondents felt safe in their
Discussion
A lack of confidence in the police is a crucial issue for policing in the Caribbean. It is important, therefore, to understand which factors may help to build confidence in the police. Previous research has shown that many police activities (e.g., crime prevention, security and police services) do not improve public confidence in the police in Caribbean countries (Johnson et al., 2014; Kuhns et al., 2011; Maguire and Johnson, 2015). Despite the failure to earn confidence from the public in
Conclusion
There are several limitations that should be acknowledged. These include the issue of temporal order, issues of measurement and generalizability of the findings to other Caribbean countries. The temporal effect is an important limitation. Although this study used theoretical frameworks suggested by previous studies (e.g., Bradford and Myhill, 2015; Cao and Dai, 2006; Jackson et al., 2009; Jackson and Bradford, 2009; Jang and Hwang, 2014), other studies suggested different research models with
Hyunin Baek is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Criminal Justice at New Mexico State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Louisville. His research interests include internet deviance, juvenile and adult deviance, police officer's organizational commitment and competency, confidence in the police, fear of crime, bullying victimization and perpetration, and testing criminological theories. His most recent publications appear or are
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Hyunin Baek is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Criminal Justice at New Mexico State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Louisville. His research interests include internet deviance, juvenile and adult deviance, police officer's organizational commitment and competency, confidence in the police, fear of crime, bullying victimization and perpetration, and testing criminological theories. His most recent publications appear or are forthcoming in Journal of School Violence, Deviant Behavior, Asian Journal of Criminology, Race and Justice, and International Journal of Police Science & Management.
Sungil Han is a doctoral student in the Criminology Program at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research interest includes public confidence in the police, fear of crime, immigration and crime, and issues related to communities and crime.
Randy Seepersad is a Criminologist and Lecturer at the University of the West Indies. Dr Seepersad received his MPhil in Social and Developmental Psychology from the University of Cambridge and his PhD in Criminology from the University of Toronto. He was National Author for Trinidad and Tobago for the 2012 United Nations Development Programme's Caribbean Human Development Report, and co-author of the 2006 and 2012 Jamaica National Crime Victimization Surveys as well as the 2011 Capacity Assessment of Forensic Laboratories in CARICOM Member States. Dr Seepersad's research interests include economic deprivation and crime, youth violence and delinquency, and criminal gangs.