The impacts of neighborhood context on residents’ satisfaction with police services in metropolitan Taipei

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to add to the literature on Taiwanese policing in three regards: employing multiple measures of satisfaction with police services; including analysis of the effects of differing neighborhood contexts; and examining both individual and district-level measures simultaneously to deepen our understanding of influences on citizen satisfaction with police services. Design/methodology/approach Data for the study were obtained from a random-stratified sampling telephone survey of 1,806 residents in metropolitan Taipei, which is located in the Northern part of Taiwan Island, during May of 2014. Given the fact that these residents were nested in 41 districts in metropolitan Taipei, hierarchical linear modeling was employed to examine the effects of both individual and district-level factors on satisfaction with police services simultaneously. Findings Results indicate that, among neighborhood context variables, mean levels of victimization, fear of crime, and perceived disorder erode citizen satisfaction with police. In contrast, collective efficacy produces a positive effect on the perception of police performance after controlling for demographics. With respect to those district-level variables, citizen/police ratio, the total crime rate/100,000 habitants, and the average of household income significantly impact public assessment of police services. Originality/value Only limited empirical research has examined neighborhood context effects on residents’ satisfaction with policing services, and virtually no such research has been carried out by examining individual and contextual-level factors at play simultaneously in Taiwan. This research fills this gap.