INCOME INEQUALITY, WEALTH, AND TRUST IN THE POLICE - SLOVENIA VS. EUROPE

Purpose: The paper explores trust in the police analysed by levels of inequality and wealth in several European countries that participated in the European Social Survey 5 in 2011. In the background of exploration are theoretical perspectives of Bailey's social entropy theory as an explicit theoretical approach for an empirical assessment of security of contemporary societies. Design/methods/approach: The paper explores the relationship between inequality, wealth, and trust in the police by way of different statistical methods applied on international data on trust in the police for twenty countries taken from the European Social Survey Round 5 Module: Trust in Police and the Criminal Courts - A Comparative European Analysis (2011), as well as data on wealth and income inequality taken from the Human Development Report of 2010 and 2011. Findings: It is clear that trust in the police and its dimensions (effectiveness, distributive fairness, procedural fairness, and police values and priorities) are significantly correlated with wealth (GDPppp) and income inequality (Gini). Trust in the police in Slovenia is low in comparison to Western European Countries. Trust in police values and priorities, as well as the trust in police fairness are the criteria that distinguish the countries with low trust in the police from others. Research limitations/implications: The paper is based on a secondary analysis of data of ESS5, so there are limited options for the exploration of additional hypotheses. Further, only a few possible concepts and their dimensions are explored, while many questions still remain unanswered. The paper represents a first step in our exploration of societal conditions and trust in the police. In further research, the results can be examined through structural equation modelling and multilevel analysis. Originality/value: The theoretical starting point of the paper is Bailey's social entropy theory. It enables one to see the relationship among various social phenomena at different levels (spanning individuals, groups, communities, organisations, and the like). The approach uses several statistical methods. The results are useful to social scientists, political leaders, journalists, police chiefs, and, last but not least, professors in the field of criminal justice and security who could devote more time to a critical examination of values needed in police work in a democracy, especially those imbedded in the societal contexts of police work.