Why Trust Matters With Juveniles

作者：Tyler Tom R^*

来源：American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 2015, 85(6): S93-S99.

DOI：10.1037/ort0000104

• justice and confidence
• legitimacy
• procedural justice
• adolescence

Legitimacy-based policing is valuable because it facilitates the achievement of a broader set of community goals. The climate of security that is created in a community forms a framework which shapes the ability of that community to develop socially, politically, and economically. Whether people will work, live, shop, and participate in a community is influenced by whether they feel reassured by the police. In addition to the rate and type of crime, it also involves the way the police are understood by the community. Are they a police force or a police service? Do they treat citizens fairly and with respect, or are they to be avoided and feared? If people have problems, do they go to the police, or do they avoid them? A police service model encourages the police to create a climate of reassurance, one that builds the community. Fear of crime undermined communities in an earlier era; but today, the police can help build communities by projecting safety and reassurance.
As noted, the police are the central point of contact between the public and the criminal justice system. Although people deal with the courts on occasion, the overwhelming majority of their contacts are with police officers. Hence, it is police policies and practices that define law to the average person and to those involved in repeated encounters with the criminal justice system. This fact has become increasingly important as issues of public trust in legal, political, and social institutions have grown to be an ever more important issue in the United States. Local and state governments enjoy more legitimacy than does the Federal government, and the police are a key local institution.

• 出版日期2015-11