IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i4p3249-d1064422.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Do People Trust the Police? A Case Study of Thailand

Author

Listed:
  • Waiphot Kulachai

    (College of Politics and Government, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok 10300, Thailand)

  • Sutham Cheurprakobkit

    (Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand)

Abstract

Trust in the police is considered vitally important in ensuring that citizens obey the law and cooperate with police officers. However, in recent times, the Royal Thai Police has been facing difficulties with the image of the organization, including lack of public trust resulting from the actions of some police officers. Therefore, this study investigated the level of trust in the police, as well as the factors that cause the public to trust the police. The samples used in this study were 971 residents in eastern Thailand. A questionnaire was used as a tool to collect data that were subjected to ordinary multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses. The findings showed police effectiveness and fairness had a positive relationship with trust in the police. Age, corruption, and fear of crime had negative relationships with trust in the police. However, victimization had no association with trust in the police. Hence, the Royal Thai Police should place great importance on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of police officers and treating people equally and fairly. In addition, corruption issues and the solving of crimes should be addressed to provide people with peace of mind and greater trust in the police.

Suggested Citation

  • Waiphot Kulachai & Sutham Cheurprakobkit, 2023. "Why Do People Trust the Police? A Case Study of Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-11, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3249-:d:1064422
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3249/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3249/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Corbacho, Ana & Philipp, Julia & Ruiz-Vega, Mauricio, 2015. "Crime and Erosion of Trust: Evidence for Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 400-415.
    2. Ren, Ling & Cao, Liqun & Lovrich, Nicholas & Gaffney, Michael, 2005. "Linking confidence in the police with the performance of the police: Community policing can make a difference," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 55-66.
    3. Patricia Y. Warren, 2010. "The Continuing Significance of Race: An Analysis Across Two Levels of Policing," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1025-1042, December.
    4. Lai, Yung-Lien & Zhao, Jihong Solomon, 2010. "The impact of race/ethnicity, neighborhood context, and police/citizen interaction on residents' attitudes toward the police," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 685-692, July.
    5. Cao, Liqun & Solomon Zhao, Jihong, 2005. "Confidence in the police in Latin America," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 403-412.
    6. Flexon, Jamie L. & Lurigio, Arthur J. & Greenleaf, Richard G., 2009. "Exploring the dimensions of trust in the police among Chicago juveniles," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 180-189, March.
    7. Danny Singh, 2022. "The Causes of Police Corruption and Working towards Prevention in Conflict-Stricken States," Laws, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-19, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bolger, Michelle A. & Lytle, Daniel J. & Bolger, P. Colin, 2021. "What matters in citizen satisfaction with police: A meta-analysis," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Harris, Jacob W. & Jones, Melissa S., 2020. "Shaping youths' perceptions and attitudes toward the police: Differences in direct and vicarious encounters with police," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Lai, Yung-Lien & Zhao, Jihong Solomon, 2010. "The impact of race/ethnicity, neighborhood context, and police/citizen interaction on residents' attitudes toward the police," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 685-692, July.
    4. Ferdik, Frank & Frogge, George & Cooney, Mikaela, 2022. "Exploring further determinants of citizen satisfaction with the police: The role of strain," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    5. Lai, Yung-Lien & Cao, Liqun & Zhao, Jihong Solomon, 2010. "The impact of political entity on confidence in legal authorities: A comparison between China and Taiwan," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 934-941, September.
    6. Alessandro, Martin & Cardinale Lagomarsino, Bruno & Scartascini, Carlos & Streb, Jorge & Torrealday, Jerónimo, 2021. "Transparency and Trust in Government. Evidence from a Survey Experiment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    7. Zhorayev, Olzhas, 2020. "Determinants of Trust in Police: A Cross-National Analysis," MPRA Paper 109068, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Xiangdan Piao & Xinxin Ma & Tetsuya Tsurumi & Shunsuke Managi, 2022. "Social Capital, Negative Event, Life Satisfaction and Sustainable Community: Evidence from 37 Countries," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 1311-1330, June.
    9. Kingsley U. Ejiogu, 2019. "Community Policing and the Engagement of Pastoral Terrorism in West Africa," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(4), pages 21582440198, December.
    10. Shaheen MANSORI & Goh Guann TYNG & Zarina Mizam Mohd ISMAIL, 2014. "Service Recovery, Satisfaction and Customers' Post Service Behavior in the Malaysian Banking Sector," Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, College of Management, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 2(4), pages 5-20, April.
    11. Jetter, Michael & Kristoffersen, Ingebjørg, 2018. "Financial shocks and the erosion of interpersonal trust: Evidence from longitudinal data," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 162-176.
    12. Tyagi, Akansha & Dhar, Rajib Lochan & Sharma, Jyoti, 2016. "Police culture, tourists and destinations: A study of Uttarakhand, India," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 563-573.
    13. Miner-Romanoff, Karen, 2023. "Bigs in Blue: Police officer mentoring for middle-school students—Building trust and understanding through structured programming," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    14. Rothstein, Jesse, 2022. "Qualitative information in undergraduate admissions: A pilot study of letters of recommendation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    15. Fabián Riffo & Daniela Pérez & César Salazar & Andrés Acuña, 2019. "¿Qué influye en la confianza en las instituciones? Evidencia empírica para Chile," Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, vol. 27(2), pages 83-104, June.
    16. Xiaochen Hu & Xudong Zhang & Nicholas Lovrich, 2021. "Public perceptions of police behavior during traffic stops: logistic regression and machine learning approaches compared," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 355-380, May.
    17. Clément, Matthieu & Piaser, Lucie, 2021. "Do inequalities predict fear of crime? Empirical evidence from Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    18. Valerie Martinez‐Ebers & Regina Branton & Brian Calfano, 2021. "The Impact of Subjective Social Position on Public Evaluations of Police," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1719-1742, July.
    19. Joelson Oliveira Sampaio & Rodrigo De-Losso, Luciana Gross Cunha, Renan Gomes de Pieri, 2015. "Does the Concern About Local Crime Affect Trust in the Police?," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2015_19, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    20. Andrea Silva & Diego Esparza, 2021. "Explaining the American crisis of policing: Media, malfeasance, and racial prejudice," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3103-3113, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3249-:d:1064422. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.