TY - JOUR

T1 - Police legitimacy or risk-avoidance: what makes people feel safe?

AU - Nalla, M.K.

AU - Гуринская, Анна Леонидовна

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - This paper’s focus is Russia, a country where trust in police has been low for decades. We examine key factors that explain citizens’ assessments of risk and safety, perceptions of police legitimacy and engagement in precautionary behaviors. We further explore the relationship between gender, prior victimization, and neighborhood incivilities to explain citizens’ safety perceptions. Two key findings emerge from a survey of millennials from St. Petersburg, Russia. Police legitimacy is a strong predictor that is positively related to citizens’ safety perceptions. However, engagement in precautionary behaviors is inversely related to respondents’ safety and risk perceptions. In addition, we have found that being a female is a strong predictor of feeling unsafe, a finding consistent with studies from other parts of the world. Neighborhood incivilities are negatively associated with safety perceptions, but its effect was only marginal for men in the subgroup analysis. Implications for the citizens’ practices of engagement in co-producing safety versus enhancing police legitimacy and the police role in enhancing risk and safety perceptions are discussed.

AB - This paper’s focus is Russia, a country where trust in police has been low for decades. We examine key factors that explain citizens’ assessments of risk and safety, perceptions of police legitimacy and engagement in precautionary behaviors. We further explore the relationship between gender, prior victimization, and neighborhood incivilities to explain citizens’ safety perceptions. Two key findings emerge from a survey of millennials from St. Petersburg, Russia. Police legitimacy is a strong predictor that is positively related to citizens’ safety perceptions. However, engagement in precautionary behaviors is inversely related to respondents’ safety and risk perceptions. In addition, we have found that being a female is a strong predictor of feeling unsafe, a finding consistent with studies from other parts of the world. Neighborhood incivilities are negatively associated with safety perceptions, but its effect was only marginal for men in the subgroup analysis. Implications for the citizens’ practices of engagement in co-producing safety versus enhancing police legitimacy and the police role in enhancing risk and safety perceptions are discussed.

KW - Safety

KW - crime in Russia

KW - fear of crime

KW - perceptions of safety

KW - police effectiveness

KW - police legitimacy

KW - risk

KW - risk aversive behavior

KW - trust in police

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097526943&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/723b92f6-05e4-39ae-8aee-9ebca65545c7/

U2 - 10.1080/0735648x.2020.1852950

DO - 10.1080/0735648x.2020.1852950

M3 - Article

VL - 45

SP - 1

EP - 20

JO - Journal of Crime and Justice

JF - Journal of Crime and Justice

SN - 0735-648X

IS - 1

ER -