Misconduct by private security officers and trust in the police : evidence from a natural experiment in Sweden

Summary, in English

Previous studies have shown that police assaults reduce trust in the police among the group affected by the incidents. As the phenomenon of plural policing emerges and the actors in policing become intertwined, blurring the boundaries between them, analysis of the impact of security guards’ actions becomes warranted. This paper investigates the impact of two security guard incidents on trust in the police in Sweden, a high-trust society, using the Unexpected Events During Survey Design, with data from the European Social Survey Wave 9. The results can be interpreted as a causal relationship and point to the fact that immigrant women’s trust in the police significantly reduced as a result of incidents, raising the importance of the fact that the immigrant group is not homogeneous and that those who suffer multiple stigmatisation may be particularly vulnerable to incidents of abuse. Furthermore, our findings highlight the potential for spill-over effects within plural policing even in high-trust societies, and the need for continuous cooperation among the actors in the security network.

• Author: Ketevan Bolkvadze; Dávid Sümeghy
• Department/s: Department of Political Science
• Publishing year: 2024
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Policing and Society
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2024.2399103
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Routledge
• Topic: Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)
• Keywords: natural experiment; Plural policing; private security; Sweden; trust in police
• Status: Epub
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1043-9463