Cop Culture and Democratic Resilience: Linking Ingroup Identity, Organizational Fairness, and Authoritarian Attitudes

This study examines how police ingroup identity relates to authoritarian attitudes and whether this relationship is associated with organizational fairness and relative deprivation. Based on survey data from 1632 employees of the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), we find that ingroup identity is strongly and positively associated with authoritarian attitudes. At the same time, we identify a weaker indirect negative pathway: stronger ingroup identity is associated with higher perceptions of organizational fairness, which in turn are associated with lower levels of relative deprivation regarding income, prestige, career prospects, and management quality. This dual-pathway model contributes to police culture research by suggesting that professional identification may both reinforce and inhibit authoritarian tendencies, depending on organizational justice dynamics. Our findings challenge one-dimensional accounts of “toxic” police culture, highlight the relevance of organizational justice and deprivation in shaping ideological orientations, and extend social identity theory to specialized investigative police units. The results underline the need for organizational strategies that foster inclusive and reflexive forms of professional loyalty to strengthen democratic resilience within law enforcement.