Author ORCID Identifier

0009-0004-3480-950X

Date of Award

Summer 8-1-2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Criminal Justice

First Advisor

Dr. Marie Ouellet

Second Advisor

Dr. Dean Dabney

Third Advisor

Dr. Joshua Hinkle

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Jacob Young

Abstract

Over the past decade, policing has come under increased scrutiny—with an added focus on the implications of waning police legitimacy among the public. A recent examination of police legitimacy spawned the term perceived audience legitimacy (PAL), which essentially concerns how police believe they are viewed by the public. PAL may influence a host of outcomes, including adherence to procedural justice, self-legitimacy, and preferences for the use of force. One factor that has emerged across officer legitimacy studies as influential is the relationships an officer has with their peers. However, most studies focus on formal colleagues in the assessment of peers, neglecting potentially stronger bonds like those that exist between officer friends. That is, informal relationships between officers may be overlooked when focusing on formal colleagues, including both within assignment (i.e., not all officers on an assignment may like one another), and in past stages of an officer’s career (e.g., former assignment, academy mate, etc.). This mixed-method dissertation uses network analysis and qualitative interviews to examine the antecedents of PAL, with a particular emphasis on examining whether officer relationships (both formal and informal) are associated with PAL. With a combined sample size of (n = 2,355), the quantitative component of this project relies on data collected from three police departments—Southeast (SE), Northeast (NE), and Southwest (SW)—as a part of the Police Network Project (PoNET). The qualitative component relies on interviews from a convenience sample of (n = 100) police officers across each of the aforementioned departments. Quantitative results indicate evidence for only informal peer influence (i.e., friends) in the two largest of the three departments (NE, SE), though not necessarily among formal colleagues (i.e., same assignment). The qualitative component reveals the relative unimportance of individual interactions, with officers basing their perceptions of legitimacy primarily on events that received wider-spread media coverage (e.g., George Floyd). The study’s findings shed insight on the role of informal networks in structuring the dependence of officer attitudes. Pragmatically, the study provides evidence that ‘bad apple’ arguments may not be as convincing, and that traditional courses of action for problematic officers like reassignment may not be as effective.

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