ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0001-0643
Date of Award
Spring 2026
Language
English
Embargo Period
4-27-2026
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College/School/Department
Department of Psychology
Program
Psychology (Master's)
First Advisor
Cynthia Najdowski
Committee Members
Cynthia Najdowski, Anna Reiman
Keywords
vigilantism, citizen’s arrest, police legitimacy, trust
Subject Categories
Social Psychology
Abstract
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. I address 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, I explore whether people approve of two types of civilian crime control, vigilantism and citizen’s arrest, differently. Lastly, I explore 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. I 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.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Parque, Charlotte T., "When Civilians Involve Themselves in Crime Control: Do Perceived Police Legitimacy and Trust in the Police Predict Support for Vigilantism and Citizen’s Arrests?" (2026). Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present). 434.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/etd/434