Abstract
The legitimacy literature suggests that the strongest antecedent of police legitimacy are evaluations of “procedural justice,” or the fairness embedded in police processes and behavior, followed by assessments of police performance, which are concerned with police accomplishments. In this chapter we raise the question of applicability of these models to situations of acute security threats. Under threat, when the public is affected by uncertainty and fear, citizens may be more concerned with outcomes and less worried about fair processes. We use a natural experiment to examine and compare antecedents of police legitimacy across two groups of Israeli citizens, one facing immediate, severe, security threats (missile threats and attacks on the Israeli town of “Sderot”) and the other not facing acute threats at the time. The results indicate that when faced with acute missile threats, people in “Sderot” did value police performance more than in other Israeli communities, where there was no specific threat in the background. At the same time, under threat procedural justice did not decline in importance for the public. Moreover, in line with previous studies, in both situations procedural justice remained the primary predictor of police legitimacy.
This chapter is adapted from: Jonathan-Zamir, T., and Weisburd, D. (2013). The effects of security threats on antecedents of police legitimacy: Findings from a quasi-experiment in Israel. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 50(1), 3–32. Available online: http://jrc.sagepub.com/content/50/1/3.short.
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Notes
- 1.
By “majority communities” we are referring to Jewish adults, not including “Haredim” (Ultra-Orthodox Jews). As discussed in subsequent sections, Ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli Arabs are unique groups, which may hold different attitudes toward the police and value determinants of police legitimacy differently, particularly in the context of policing terrorism.
- 2.
The survey stations included Afula, Ashkelon, Be’er-Sheva, Natanya, Rosh-Ha’ayin, Sderot, Yarkon, Zion, and Zvulun. They were chosen because of their variability in sociodemographic characteristics (crime levels; population size; proportion of Arabs within the population; and socioeconomic levels) and on levels of “classic” terrorism threats.
- 3.
- 4.
See review of the history of Sderot, available at: http://www.e-sderot.org.il/Openning.asp.
- 5.
By the end of 2007, Sderot was hit by 803 rockets, which constitute 45 % of rockets hitting inhabited areas in the south of Israel (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, 2007).
- 6.
- 7.
While between July and October, 2008, 1–8 rocket hits were identified per month, 125 rocket hits were identified in November 2008 (see Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, 2009).
- 8.
Information obtained through personal communication with a high ranking, retired Israeli police official.
- 9.
The excluded districts were Ashkelon, Be’er-Sheva, and Zion (Jerusalem). With regard to Ashkelon and Be’er-Sheva, by the end of 2008 the range of rocket attacks from Gaza expanded to include these districts as well (see Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, 2009). This potential threat, therefore, disqualified them from our comparison group of “no threat.” With regard to Zion (Jerusalem), several major terror attacks took place in Jerusalem in 2008 (see data reported by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs: www.mfa.gov.il). Although threat levels in Jerusalem were low compared to those witnessed in 2002 and 2003, these recent attacks disqualified Zion from our comparison group as well. Importantly, however, because we viewed the security situation in these three districts as much closer to the situation in the comparison districts than to the extreme threat in Sdeort, we initially carried out the analysis with these districts as part of the comparison group. Additionally, we compared Sderot to each of the comparison districts separately, and in both cases reached similar results. However, in our final model we sought to compare the high-threat status of Sderot to a comparison group that is broad and diverse, but also as “clean” from security threats as possible.
- 10.
Although evaluations of procedural justice were found to be equally important across ethnic groups (Sunshine & Tyler, 2003; Tyler, 1994, 2000; Tyler & Huo, 2002), surveys of public attitudes toward the police consistently reveal that whites hold more positive attitudes toward the police than non-whites (Bowling, 1999; Brown & Benedict, 2002; Gallagher, Maguire, Mastrofski, & Reisig, 2001). Similarly, in Israel, Jewish citizens were found to hold more favorable attitudes toward the police than Arab citizens (Hasisi & Weitzer, 2007). Grouping together attitudes and expectations of Jews and Arabs from the police is particularly problematic in the context of policing terrorism (see Hasisi, Alpert, & Flynn, 2009; Henderson, Ortiz, Sugie, & Miller, 2006; Innes, 2006; Thacher, 2005), due to ethnic or national links to the source of the terrorism threat, or because Arab minorities may be treated as the “enemy within” (Hasisi et al., 2009).
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (2010), in 2009, eight percent of Israeli Jews above the age of 20 defined themselves as “Ultra-Orthodox” [see: http://www.cbs.gov.il/reader/newhodaot/hodaa_template.html?hodaa=201019101 (in Hebrew)]. Ultra-Orthodox Jews generally perceive the state of Israel as “a very problematic entity with which it has been necessary to come to terms…” (Barzilai, 2005, p. 217), in large part because they view Jewish nationalism as contradicting messianic redemption. This population is characterized by tense relationships with the state and its agents, and it is thus not surprising that Ultra-Orthodox Jews were found to differ from the majority community in Israel in terms of both evaluations of the police and general obligation to obey the law (see Rattner, 2009; Yagil & Rattner, 2002).
- 11.
In our Sderot sample, only 6 respondents stated that they are Ultra-Orthodox Jews (1.4 %), and only one respondent stated that he is an Israeli Arab (0.2 %).
- 12.
As stated earlier, in this analysis we followed Tyler’s conceptualization of “police legitimacy” (e.g., Tyler, 2004, 2009). This concept has often been operationalized in previous studies as a combination of trust in the police, obligation to obey the police and the law, and sometimes affective feelings toward the police (see Hinds & Murphy, 2007; Sunshine & Tyler, 2003; Tyler, 2004, 2009; Tyler & Fagan, 2008). Because recent research suggests that “trust” and “obligation to obey” may be two distinct concepts, both theoretically and empirically (see Reisig et al., 2007; Tankebe, 2009), in our analysis we chose to differentiate between them and focus specifically on “trust.” Importantly, however, we also carried out our analysis with an elaborated index of “police legitimacy,” which included, in addition to the four “trust” statements, two statements tapping obligation to obey the police and the law, and reached highly similar results. The two additional statements were “I always try to obey the law, even if I find it unfair”; and “The police should be obeyed, even if we are not pleased with the way they treat citizens” (elaborated legitimacy index: Cronbach’s Alpha value: 0.71; range: 6–30; Sderot: Mean = 22.05; SD = 5.07; Comparison districts: Mean = 21.40; SD = 4.37).
- 13.
We did not directly ask about police accomplishments in handling the missile landing sites as this would not be relevant in our comparison districts, and because we tried to follow previous research in our definition of the variables. Importantly, as noted earlier, adequate police presence is highly relevant to this police task, and is, in turn, highly correlated with evaluations of handling crime.
- 14.
Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, 2008; see: http://www.cbs.gov.il/reader/newhodaot/hodaa_template.html?hodaa=200811082.
- 15.
While the potential effects of these variables on police legitimacy are important and interesting, because our research questions focus on the interplay between procedural justice and performance in situations of security threats, further discussion of the effects of the control variables is beyond the scope of this chapter.
- 16.
Tolerance levels for all variables were above 0.4 in Sderot and 0.6 in our comparison districts, indicating that there were no multicollinearity problems (see Weisburd & Britt, 2007).
- 17.
Z = b 1 − b 2/√(SEb1 2 + SEb2 2).
- 18.
It is important to note, however, that in our Sderot sample the difference between the betas was smaller than in our control districts.
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Appendix: Control Variables
Appendix: Control Variables
The variable | Description | Distribution—Sderot | Distribution—comparison districts |
|---|---|---|---|
Attitudes toward the police | |||
Risk index | Operationalized by asking respondents to state how likely it is, in their view, to get caught by the police for each of the following behaviors [on a scale ranging from very unlikely (1) to very likely (5)]: violating a traffic regulation; breaking and entering; dealing drugs; and vandalizing public property. (Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.70) | Range: 4–20 | Range: 4–20 |
Mean = 11.15 | Mean = 9.71 | ||
SD = 4.04 | SD = 3.50 | ||
N = 392 | N = 1,518 | ||
Experience with the police | |||
Negative encounter with police | Scores of 1–3 on a scale of 1–5, rating an encounter with the police during the year prior to the survey (“no encounter” as the reference category) | Negative encounter: 15.9 % | Negative encounter: 18.2 % |
Positive encounter: 12.7 % | Positive encounter: 9.6 % | ||
Positive encounter with police | Scores of 4 and 5 on a scale of 1–5, rating an encounter with the police during the year prior to the survey (“no encounter” as the reference category) | No encounter: 71.5 % | No encounter: 72.2 % |
N = 403 | N = 1,589 | ||
Crime victim | Victimization during the year prior to the survey (coded as 0 = no; 1 = yes) | No: 90.6 % | No: 86.8 % |
Yes: 9.4 % | Yes: 13.2 % | ||
N = 404 | N = 1,602 | ||
Respondent or close family member serving/served in INP | Coded as 0 = no; 1 = yes | No: 68.6 % | No: 75.0 % |
Yes: 31.4 % | Yes: 25.0 % | ||
N = 405 | N = 1,603 | ||
Volunteered in Civil Guarda | Coded as 0 = no; 1 = yes | No: 78.0 % | No: 78.5 % |
Yes: 22.0 % | Yes: 21.5 % | ||
N = 405 | N = 1,603 | ||
Sociodemographic characteristics | |||
Sex | Coded as 0 = female; 1 = male | Female: 49.4 % | Female: 51.7 % |
Male: 50.6 % | Male: 48.3 % | ||
N = 405 | N = 1,608 | ||
Age | Mean = 43.49 | Mean = 45.87 | |
SD = 15.03 | SD = 15.33 | ||
N = 397 | N = 1,579 | ||
Education | Measured by eight education levels | Min. = No education (1) | Min. = No education (1) |
Max. = Ph.D. (8) | Max. = Ph.D. (8) | ||
Median = High school with diploma (4) | Median = Nonacademic education beyond high school (5) | ||
N = 402 | N = 1,601 | ||
Income | Measured by five income levels | Min. = Much less than average (1) | Min. = Much less than average (1) |
Max. = Much above average (5) | Max. = Much above average (5) | ||
Median = A little less than average (2) | Median = About average (3) | ||
N = 381 | N = 1,396 | ||
Single | (“Married” as the reference category) | Married or living with a spouse: 70.2 % | Married or living with a spouse: 68.9 % |
Divorced/separated/single-parent | Single: 19.3 % | Single: 17.9 % | |
Widowed | Divorced/separated/single parent: 6.0 % Widowed: 4.5 % | Divorced/separated/single parent: 8.7 % Widowed: 4.5 % | |
N = 399 | N = 1,593 | ||
Born in Africa/Asia | (“Born in Israel” as the reference category) | Born in Israel: 54.3 % | Born in Israel: 69.0 % |
Born in America/Europe | Born in former Soviet Union: 21.7 % | Born in former Soviet Union: 11.0 % | |
Born in former Soviet Union | Born in Africa/Asia: 18.3 % | Born in Africa/Asia: 10.0 % | |
Born in America/Europe: 5.7 % | Born in America/Europe: 9.7 % | ||
N = 405 | N = 1,605 | ||
New immigrant in Israel | Defined as 7 years or less since immigration to Israel, according to a natural braking point in the distribution (coded as 0 = no; 1 = yes) | No = 100.00 % | No = 99.3 % |
Yes = 0.00 % | Yes = 0.7 % | ||
N = 405 | N = 1,608 | ||
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Jonathan-Zamir, T., Weisburd, D., Hasisi, B. (2014). The Effects of Security Threats on Antecedents of Police Legitimacy. In: Policing Terrorism, Crime Control, and Police-Community Relations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08126-7_4
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