Michael D. Reisig

Short Resume

Michael Reisig, Ph.D., is a Professor at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University. He currently serves on the editorial boards of various journals including the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Criminology and Public Policy, and the Journal of Criminal Investigation and Criminology. Professor Reisig is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Police and Policing. Professor Reisig is a fellow of the American Society of Criminology. He is also a member of the technical review panel working on revising and updating the National Crime Victimization Survey.

Title of the presentation

Developments in the Measurement of Police Legitimacy: Progress and Persistent Challenges

Abstract

The measurement of police legitimacy has made significant progress since the pioneering studies of the 1980s. Some of the most widely used approaches have grown increasingly complex, often resulting in multidimensional scales. However, whether these more recent scales have fully addressed the challenges of measuring police legitimacy remains a subject of debate. For example, certain domains within these scales lack discriminant validity. Additionally, some of these scales include items that are vague and imprecise. Recently developed normative police legitimacy scales offer a promising direction for development, potentially overcoming some of the challenges that have hindered previous scales. Nonetheless, whether normative police legitimacy scales can overcome all of the persistent challenges remains to be seen.

Keywords

legitimacy, policing, procedural justice, process-based model