Access Type

Open Access Thesis

Date of Award

January 2015

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department

Criminal Justice

First Advisor

Brad Smith

Abstract

Past qualitative research has shown that fear of retaliation influences an individual's willingness to cooperate with the police. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively examine the influence that fear of retaliation has on a citizen's willingness to cooperate with the police. This study also examined both normative and instrumental motivations for cooperating with the police to understand which motivations are more salient at explaining willingness to cooperate with the police. Data for this study were collected from 408 Detroit homes in 2009 from three different neighborhoods where homes were selected randomly from those neighborhoods. Results indicate that the instrumental motivation, fear of retaliation, influences an individual's willingness to cooperate with the police. However, even more salient was the normative motivation, trust in the police, which showed that citizens who are more trustful of the police will be more willing to cooperate with them.

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