Abstract Numerous cross-sectional studies have revealed positive associations of fear of crime and trust in the police. However, the ›chicken or egg‹-question remains unsolved in these works. To address this issue, the present inquiry uses longitudinal survey data for determining the influence of crime-related fears on public attitudes towards the police. Secondary analyses of a German panel study show that fear of crime does not affect confidence in the police. Instead, the quality of the personal contact experiences with police officers and the level of anomic irritation emerge as powerful predictors. Thus, the findings support procedural justice theory and expressive explanatory models but not an instrumental perspective on citizens’ trust in the police.
Hirtenlehner et al. (Thu,) studied this question.