When Civilians Concern themselves in Crime Control

Recent cases in which civilians involved themselves in the crime control process have garnered divided reactions, with some people supporting and others disapproving the civilians’ actions. Although existing research shows that perceptions of the police predict support of civilians involved in crime control, exact directions of the effects conflict. We addressed these conflicting findings by examining how people conceptualize police legitimacy and trust in the police, whether those conceptualizations align with scholarly definitions of legitimacy and trust, and explore if the two constructs differentially predict support of vigilantism. Additionally, we explored whether people approve of two types of civilian crime control, vigilantism and citizen’s arrest, differently. Lastly, we explored how perceived police legitimacy and trust in the police are related to people’s perceptions of citizen’s arrests, a possibility previously left unexamined. Whereas some participants believe police legitimacy and trust in the police to mean different things, other participants conflated them. We also found that trust negatively predicted approval of vigilantism. Lastly, perceived police legitimacy had a positive relation with approval of citizen’s arrest, specifically when people defined citizen’s arrest appropriately. Furthermore, people did not approve of vigilantism and citizen’s arrest differently. Suggestions for future research and implications are discussed.