The purposeof this paper is to develop a measurement model of the sentiments of police legitimacy among São Paulo citizens. National survey-based research on public attitudes towards the legal authorities commonly adoptsan operationalist approach, ignoring the gap between concepts and survey questions. We contribute substantively to this research field by developing a measurement model of police legitimacy, which is conceptually defined as a normatively grounded duty to obey the police and a moral alignment with the police. Using data from a representative survey of eight regions of the city ofSão Paulo in 2017, we performed a second-order confirmatory factor analysis. Subsequentely, we estimated a structural equation model centered on the legitimacy construct so as to validate the measure. Policy implications of both the concept and the measurement of police legitimacy are discussed.
Police legitimacy; measurement model; public attitudes towards the police; reflective approach; public security
Nota: Método de estimação
Elaboração própria.
Elaboração própria com base nos dados de survey do NEV-USP.Nota: Todos os indicadores foram considerados categóricos. Erros-padrão clusterizados (a nível das áreas-chave) conforme o planejamento amostral. Método de estimação: WLS (FIML). Teste: χ2=637,58: p<0,01. CFI=0.983, TLI=0,981, RMSEA=0,018.*: p<0,001. + : p<0,05.