Based on recent cross-sectional data from the European Social Surveys Round 4 (ESS4), in Romania and Bulgaria, the average levels of confidence in the country's police appear to be much lower than in most European Union states. However, Romanians and Bulgarians tend to trust the local police more than they trust their country's legal system, the main political parties, the country's parliament and the national government. Using ESS4 data collected from national representative samples of Romanians and Bulgarians, the present quantitative analysis attempts to assess the relative influence on attitudes toward the police of subjective (eg, perceptions of important legal and political institutions; interpersonal trust; perceived sense of safety; perceived social and economic exclusion) and objective individual-level factors, such as sociodemographic characteristics, residency in capital cities (Bucharest and Sofia) and experiences with victimisation. Results show that, in both countries, institutional trust is the most important predictor of public attitudes toward the police. The potential impact of real and perceived recent crime trends and the latent effects of economic, political, legal and historical conditions on public discontent with the police in developing democracies is also discussed.
AbrahamP. (2001). The Romanian police and challenges of transition. In KadarA. (Ed.), Police in transition. Essays on the police forces in transition countries (pp. 115–129). Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press.
2.
AckermanG.AndersonB.JensenS.LudwigR.MonteroD.PlanteN.YanezV. (2001). Crime rates and confidence in the police: America's changing attitudes toward crime and police, 1972–1999. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 28, 43–54.
3.
AromaaK.LeppaS.NevalaS.OllusN. (Eds.). (2003). Crime and criminal justice in Europe and North America, 1995–1997. Helsinki, Finland: UN European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control.
4.
BarbaletJ. (2009). A characterization of trust, and its consequences. Theory and Society, 38, 367–382.
5.
BensonP. R. (1981). Political alienation and public satisfaction with police services. Pacific Sociological Review, 24, 45–64.
6.
BojkovV. (2006). Integrating the Bulgarian security sector in Euro-Atlantic structures: Post-1989 reforms in a changing landscape of (in)securitisation. LSE Challenge Papers, Work Package 2: Securitization beyond borders. London: London School of Economics. Retrieved January 11, 2012, from http://www2.lse.ac.uk/internationalRelations/centresandunits/EFPU/EFPUchallengepapers.aspx
BradfordB.JacksonJ.StankoE. A. (2009). Contact and confidence: Revisiting the impact of public encounters with the police. Policing & Society, 19, 20–46.
9.
CapariniM.MareninO. (2005). Crime, insecurity and police reform in post-socialist CEE. The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, 2. Retrieved August 11, 2011, from http://pipss.revues.org/330
10.
CarterD. L. (2002). The police and the community (7th ed.). Englewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
11.
Center for the Study of Democracy (2011). Public trust in the criminal justice system – an instrument for penal policy assessment, Policy Brief No. 29. Sofia, Bulgaria: CSD. Retrieved July 1, 2011, from http://www.csd.bg/artShow.php?id=15598
DevosT.SpinD.SchwartzS. H. (2002). Conflicts between human values and trust in institutions. British Journal of Psychology, 41, 481–484.
14.
DowlerK.SparksR. (2008). Victimization, contact with police, and neighborhood conditions: Reconsidering African Americans and Hispanic attitudes toward the police. Police Practice & Research: An International Journal, 9, 395–415.
European Commission (2012b, February 8). Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council: Interim report on progress in Bulgaria under the co-operation and verification mechanism. Retrieved February 12, 2012, from http://ec.europa.eu/cvm/docs/com_2012_57_en.pdf
18.
European Social Survey (ESS). (2008). Round 4 data. Data file edition 1.0. Bergen, Norway: Norwegian Social Science Data Services (data archive and distributor of ESS data).
19.
FrankJ.SmithB. W.NovakK. J. (2005). Exploring the basis of citizens' attitudes toward the police. Police Quarterly, 8, 206–228.
20.
GoldsmithA. (2005). Police reform and the problem of trust. Theoretical Criminology, 9, 443–470.
21.
Guvernul Romaniei. (2005, September 7). Codul de etica si deontologie al politistului. Decizia 991, 25.08.2005. Monitorul Oficial, No. 813. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.mai.gov.ro/Documente/Cariera/Cod_etica.pdf
22.
HawdonJ.RyanJ. (2003). Police–resident interactions and satisfaction with police: An empirical test of community policing assertions. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 14, 55–74.
23.
HintonM. S.NewbornT. (2009). Introduction. In HintonM. S.NewbornT. (Eds.), Policing developing democracies (pp. 1–28). New York, NY: Routledge.
24.
HoT.McKeanJ. (2004). Confidence in the police and perceptions of risk. Western Criminological Review, 5, 108–118.
25.
HoughM.JacksonJ.BradfordB.MyhillA.QuintonP. (2010). Procedural justice, trust, and legitimacy. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 4, 203–210.
26.
HurstV. G. (2007). Juvenile attitudes toward the police. Criminal Justice Review, 32, 121–141.
27.
JacksonJ.BradfordB. (2009). Crime, policing and social order: On the expressive nature of public confidence in policing. British Journal of Sociology, 60, 493–521.
28.
JacksonJ.BradfordB.HohlK.FarrallS. (2009). Does the fear of crime erode public confidence in policing?Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 3, 100–111.
29.
JacksonJ.SunshineJ. (2007). Public confidence in policing: A neo-Durkheimian perspective. British Journal of Criminology, 47, 214–233.
30.
KaariainenJ. T. (2007). Trust in the police in 16 European countries: A multilevel analysis. European Journal of Criminology, 4, 409–435.
31.
KaariainenJ. T. (2008). Why do the Finns trust the police?Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 9, 141–159.
32.
KadarA. (Ed.). (2001). Police in transition. Essays on the police forces in transition countries. Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press.
33.
KilliasM. (2010) European sourcebook of crime and criminal justice statistics – 2010. 285 Onderzoek en beleid (4th ed.). Den Haag, The Netherlands: Boom Juridische uitgevers. Ministry of Justice, Research and Documentation Centre (WODC). Retrieved March 2, 2011, from http://europeansourcebook.org/ob285_full.pdf
34.
KociA. (1996). Legitimation and culturalism: Towards policing changes in the European ‘post- socialist’ countries. In PagonM. (Ed.), Policing in Central and Eastern Europe: Comparing firsthand knowledge with experinece from the West. Ljubljana, Slovenia: College of Police and Security Studies. Retrieved July 5, 2012, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/policing/leg219.htm
35.
KoszegF. (2001). Introduction. In KadarA. (ed.) Police in transition. Essays on the police forces in transition countries (pp. 1–12). Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press.
36.
LucasJ. R. (1980). On justice. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
37.
MarinovaG. (2006). Bulgarian criminal procedure: The new philosophy and issues of approximation. Review of Central and East European Law, 31, 45–79.
38.
MaxsonC.HenniganK.SloaneD. C. (2003). Factors that influence public opinion of the police (NIJ Research for Practice, NCJ 197925). Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
39.
MillJ. S. (1948). Utilitarianism, liberty and representative government. London: Dent, Everyman's edition.
40.
Ministerul Administratiei si Internelor (MAI). (2011). Evaluarea Activitatii Desfasurate de Ministerul Administratiei si Internelor in Anul 2010. Bucuresti, Romania: Editura MAI.
Ministry of the Interior (MoI). (n.d.). About the Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved January 10, 2012, from www.mvr.bg/en/
43.
MishlerW.RoseR. (1997). Trust, distrust and skepticism: Popular evaluations of civil and political institutions in post-communist societies. Journal of Politics, 59, 418–451.
44.
MobekkE. (2005). Police reform in South East Europe: An analysis of the stability pact self-assessed studies. In ColeE.DonaisT.FluriP. H. (Eds.), Defence and security sector governance and reform in South East Europe self-assessment studies: Regional perspectives (pp. 155–167). Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft.
45.
MuellerG. P. (2008). Trust and life satisfaction in Eastern and Western Europe. In MøllerV.HuschkaD. (Eds.), Quality of life and the millennium challenge (pp. 161–176). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
46.
MyhillA.QuintonP. (2010). Confidence, neighbourhood policing, and contact: Drawing together the evidence. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 4, 273–281.
O'NeillO. (2002). A question of trust: The BBC Reith lectures 2002. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
49.
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). (2009). POLIS – Policing profiles of participating and partner states: Bulgaria. Retrieved December 28, 2011, from http://polis.osce.org/countries/details?item_id=11
50.
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). (2010). POLIS – Policing profiles of participating and partner states: Romania. Retrieved December 28, 2011. from http://polis.osce.org/countries/details?item_id=40
51.
PhillipsE.TroneJ. (2002). Building public confidence in police through civilian oversight. New York, NY: Vera Institute of Justice.
RacovitaM. (2011). Europenization and effective democracy in Romania and Bulgaria. Romanian Journal of Political Science, 11, pp. 28–49.
54.
ReisigM. D.ParksR. B. (2000). Experience, quality of life, and neighborhood context: A hierarchical analysis of satisfaction with police. Justice Quarterly, 17, 607–629.
55.
ReynoldsK. M.SemukhinaO. B.DemidovN. N. (2008). A longitudinal analysis of public satisfaction with the police in the Volvograd region of Russia. International Criminal Justice Review, 18, 158–189.
56.
RothsteinB. (2005). Social traps and the problem of trust. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
57.
RothsteinB.StolleD. (2003). Social capital, impartiality, and the welfare state: An institutional approach. In HoogheM.StolleD. (Eds.), Generating social capital: The role of voluntary associations, institutions, and government policy (pp. 191–210). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
58.
RzeplinskiA. (2001). The police in the constitutional framework: The limits of policing. In KadarA. (Ed.), Police in transition. Essays on the police forces in transition countries (pp. 71–88). Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press.
59.
ScaglionR.CondonR. G. (1980). Determinants of attitudes toward city police. Criminology, 17, 485–494.
60.
SkoganW. G. (2006). Asymmetry in the impact of encounters with police. Policing & Society, 16, 99–126.
61.
SkoganW. G. (2009). Concern about crime and confidence in the police. Police Quarterly, 12, 301–318.
SpirovaM. (2009). Bulgaria. European Journal of Political Research, 48, 913–916.
64.
SztompkaP. (1998). Trust, distrust and two paradoxes of democracy. European Journal of Social Theory, 1, 19–32.
65.
SztompkaP. (1999). Trust: A sociological theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
66.
TankebeJ. (2010). Public confidence in the police: Testing the effects of experience of police corruption in Ghana. British Journal of Criminology, 50, 296–319.
67.
TewksburyR.WestA. (2001). Crime victims' satisfaction with police services: An assessment in one urban community. The Justice Professional, 14, 271–285.
UslanerE. M. (2010). Corruption, inequality, and the rule of law. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
74.
WattsL. L. (2004). Civil–military relationships. In CareyH. F. (Ed.), Romania since 1989: Politics, economics, and society (pp. 523–551). Oxford, UK: Lexington Books.
75.
WeberR. (2001). Police organization and accountability: A comparative study. In KadarA. (Ed.), Police in transition. Essays on the police forces in transition countries (pp. 39–69). Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press.
76.
WeitzerR.TuchS. A. (2005). Determinants of public satisfaction with the police. Police Quarterly, 8, 279–297.
ZvekicU. (1996). The international crime (victim) survey: Issues of comparative advantages and disadvantages. International Criminal Justice Review, 6, 1–21.
