Legitimacy’s Impact on Public Support for Militarization

The article Assessing the Direct and Indirect Effects of Legitimacy on Public Empowerment of Police: A Study of Public Support for Police Militarization in America by Moule et al. (2019) explores the relationship between police legitimacy and public support for police militarization, particularly in the United States. It explores the role of police legitimacy and the associated perceptions of trust, fairness, and effectiveness on citizen desires to empower the police by tolerating legitimizing laws such as militarization. Considering Tyler's process-based approach to policing, the study examines the direct and indirect consequences of legitimate power on the empowerment of the people. In this hypothesis, Moule et al. (2019) suppose that legitimacy boosts support for police militarization when citizens perceive it as a means of improving police performance. The presented study is of great value to the research of the sphere of criminal justice as it helps to understand the peculiarities of the impact of legitimacy on the attitudes to the militarization of the sphere of law enforcement and sheds some light on the question of the population attitude to the issue of human rights and the problem of the militarization of the process of law enforcement.

Description of the Problem or Issue

Police militarization in the U.S. has sparked widespread debate, especially after high-profile incidents such as the civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Militarization is the tendency of police to emulate the military apparatus, military way of doing things, and military way of acting, which frequently raises fears of violations of civil liberties. Moule et al. (2019) focus on the heart of the problem, which is the extent to which the perception of police legitimacy in the eyes of the population influences the position towards or against such militarization. Legitimacy, as an attitude that entails people's belief in the justness, reliability, and usefulness of law enforcement practices, has been found to affect compliance and collaboration with the police. The research aims to learn how legitimacy may influence the mobilization of the masses, especially regarding the militarization debate (Moule et al., 2019). It analyses the rates at which people hold police legitimacy in society regarding increasing the level of police use of equipment in a military style, such as weapons and vehicles, in their operations.

Analysis

In their study, Moule et al. (2019) use structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze data collected from 702 American adults. They are testing the hypothesis that legitimacy imposes both direct and indirect impacts on the citizen support of police militarization and perceived consequences (e.g., increased police effectiveness and apprehensions of violation of civil rights) from mediators. In the research, they conclude that legitimacy affects the support of militarization directly and positively, i.e., where people perceive the police as legitimate, they tend to support police militarization through the supply of military surplus equipment (Moule et al., 2019). Furthermore, legitimacy also affects the degree to which people perceive that militarization will have specific outcomes, and there is a high chance that they would conclude that militarization contributes to the effectiveness of the police and that it lessens the fear of violation of civil rights (Moule et al., 2019). Such findings show that legitimacy has a considerable influence on an attitude towards militarization and that the support of police by the population can be a determinant in the pursuit of the popularity of these practices.

Discussion

The study confirms that police legitimacy is decisive in shaping public support for militarization. Individuals who hold law enforcement as legitimate also have an increased tendency to justify the application of military surplus equipment, especially when that person feels that the application of such equipment results in an increased effectiveness of the police (Moule et al., 2019). Another presumption the findings bring is that legitimacy affects the populace's perception of militarization outcomes. In particular, the people who believe in the police are also less worried about police escalation of civil rights violations and more interested in such positive effects of militarization as a decrease in crime rates. Such findings add to the general body of knowledge of the process-based model of policing proposed by Tyler, which proved that the arbitrary truth of the general public is not only applicable to the question of compliance in law enforcement but also to a more nuanced subject of militarization (Moule et al., 2019). The research points out the possibility of conducting further studies to help understand the impact of media representation and regional variability on people's opinions concerning police legitimacy and militarization.

Critique

Although the study can be seen as valuable regarding levels of police legitimacy and treatment of law enforcement power by the people, its cross-sectional structure prevents the study from identifying causality. The study provides a momentary picture of people's moods in a specific time frame. It cannot conclusively show that higher levels of legitimacy lead to higher levels of militarization support (Moule et al., 2019). A longitudinal study would be helpful to evaluate the change in views of people in general from time to time, especially about the change in police approach or cases of large-scale police misconduct. The study also looks at two of the most infamous effects of militarization, that is, police efficiency and civil rights abuses, though other issues, including financial aspects or accountability issues, can also form the opinion of people. Future studies may reduce these gaps by examining a wider set of perceived consequences and addressing how other individual factors, such as personal experiences with the police or their political ideology, may shape the degree of support devoted to the militarization issue.

Conclusion

The article has a valuable impact on the knowledge of police legitimacy and its influence on attitudes toward police militarization. Research demonstrates that legitimacy, directly and indirectly, impacts militarization support, where legitimacy leads to bias or notions of police effectiveness and civil rights issues. The results lead to the possibility that any attempts to enhance police legitimacy, such as by employing methods such as procedural justice and fair treatment, may be significant in treating support of controversial policing procedures such as militarization. When formulating policies that might pass off as controversial or even intrusive, policymakers should consider the issue of legitimacy. Nonetheless, the study requires further research to explore other aspects affecting how people view militarization and how legitimacy impacts citizens' long-term support of law enforcement practices.