다수준 분석을 통한 경찰신뢰 영향요인 탐색: 지역사회 맥락요인을 중심으로

Despite many studies regarding the determinants of confidence in the police have been conducted, there are relatively few studies in South Korea that take into account the variables of the policing and the neighborhood structural context variables. In order to fill this gap, the current study explored the effects of individual characteristics, police activities and community characteristics upon confidence in the police by combining the Crime Victimization Survey data from Korean Institute of Criminology with the regional level data from the Korean National Police Agency and the Statistics Korea. The results showed that social cohesion, collective efficacy and life satisfaction had a positive effect on confidence in the police, while perceived disorder, victimization and fear of crime had a negative effect on confidence in the police. Regarding fear of crime, only fear of sexual violence had a significant association with confidence in the police. In terms of regional variables, suicide rate and the number of public places showed negative relations with confidence in the police. Suicide rate moderated both the relationship between social cohesion and confidence in the police as well as the relationship between collective efficacy and police confidence. In addition, as a result of separating the data into two groups as high confidence and low confidence in the police, differences in factors affecting confidence in the police were found. The results indicated the influence of expressive and instrumental factors on confidence in the police and the necessity to reinforce community policing. The implications and limitations of this study were also discussed.