Trust in the Police in 16 European Countries

There is considerable variation in public trust towards the police in different European countries. Through multilevel analysis, the article explores what lies behind this variation. It first approaches the issue at the country level through factors related to the quality and structure of government. The quality of government is looked at and measured by examining corruption in government, and the structure of government by exploring the extent to which society invests its resources in public order and safety services. Here the assumptions are, first of all, that general corruption among public officials decreases public trust in the police and, second, that big investments in public order and safety institutions also decrease trust in the police. In addition, certain individual-level factors are identified that explain public trust in the police. Finally, empirical results are presented that corroborate the above assumptions: in particular, corruption in government strongly explains the country-level variation in public trust towards the police.