This study contributes to the field of ‘conflict policing’ by discussing police legitimacy and the public perception of vigilantism in wartime Ukraine. Employing a cross-sectional sample (N = 15,127) of the residents of the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, we test Bottoms and Tankebe’s (2012) police legitimacy model and analyse the determinants of public support for vigilantism in pre-war and wartime Ukraine. Our results show that the Bottoms–Tankebe model proves adequate for both time periods. Our study shows that the impact of the war has led to an increase in support for vigilantism and that a higher level of support for vigilantism has been positively associated with the perception of police fairness. Policing during conflict requires a strong presence in terms of officers and may indicate a double standard amongst the general public regarding police corruption in the sense of making it seem more understandable.
BeckAChistyakovaY (2004) Closing the gap between the police and the public in post-soviet Ukraine: A bridge too far?Police Practice and Research5(1): 43–65.
2.
BottomsATankebeJ (2012) Beyond procedural justice: A dialogic approach to legitimacy in criminal justice. The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology102: 119–170.
3.
Commissioner for Human Rights (2012) Report by Thomas Hammarberg Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe following his visit to Ukraine from 19 to 26 November 2011. CommDH(2012)10. Available at: https://rm.coe.int/16806db707.
HaasNEde KeijserJWBruinsmGJN (2014) Public support for vigilantism, confidence in police and police responsiveness. Policing and Society24(2): 224–241.
10.
HillJB (2010) Conflict policing: Policing in a time of war. International Criminal Justice Review20(4): 384–397.
11.
KarchevskyM (2023) Протидія злочинності в Україні: інфорграфіка: інтерактивний довідник. Версія 3.0. Available at: https://karchevskiy.com/i-dovidnyk/.
KupatadzeA (2015) Political corruption in Eurasia: Understanding collusion between states, organized crime and business. Theoretical Criminology19(2): 198–215.
Law of Ukraine about the National Police (2015) ЗАКОН УКРАЇНИ Про Національну поліцію. Відомості Верховної Ради (ВВР), 2015, № 40-41, ст.379. Available in Ukrainian at: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/580-19#Text.
16.
ManningPK (2010) Democratic Policing in a Changing World. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315635231
17.
MaratE (2018) The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries. Oxford: OUP.
18.
MaratE (2019) Mimicking ‘broken windows’ policing in post-soviet cities: Expanding social control in uncertain times. Policing and Society29(9): 1005–1021.
19.
MigdalJS (2001) State in Society: Studying How States and Societies Transform and Constitute One Another. Cambridge: CUP.
20.
NivetteA (2014) Legitimacy and crime: Theorizing the role of the state in cross-national criminological theory. Theoretical Criminology18(1): 93–111.
SerdiukOBugaychukKL, et al. (2023) Security and trust 2022: Results of survey conducted in the Kharkiv region in 2013–2022: [monograph]. Serdyuk O.O., Bugaichuk K.L., Matyushkova T.P., Kuzina I.I., Danylenko I.V., Shcherbakova I.V., Markovska G.O.; ed. By Sokurenko V.V.; Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs – Kharkiv: KhNUIA, 2023, p.136. https://doi.org/10.32631/sf2022.
25.
ShelleyL (1998) Organized crime and corruption in Ukraine: Impediments to the development of a free market economy. Demokratizatsiya6(4): 648–663.
TankebeJ (2009) Self-help, policing, and procedural justice: Ghanaian vigilantism and the rule of law. Law & Society Review43(2): 245–269.
28.
TankebeJ (2010) Public confidence in the police: Testing the effects of public experiences of police corruption in Ghana. British Journal of Criminology50: 296–319.
29.
TankebeJAsifM (2016) Police legitimacy and support for vigilante violence in Pakistan. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice40(4): 343–362.
30.
van DuynePCStoccoEMilenovicM (2009) Corruption in Serbia: Unique or a shared Balkan disease?Temida12(4): 29–58.
31.
WeathersFWLitzBTKeaneTM, et al. (2013) The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Scale available from the National Center for PTSD at www.ptsd.va.gov.
32.
ZabyelinaY (2019) Vigilante justice and informal policing in post-Euromaidan Ukraine. Post-Soviet Affairs35(4): 277–292.
33.
ZabyelinaYMarkovskaA (2019) Ukraine: Organised crime, politics and frozen conflicts. In: AllumFGilmoreS (eds) Handbook of Organised Crime and Politics. London: Edward Elgar, 105–118.
