“Strikingly and Stubbornly High”: Investigating the Paradox of Public Confidence in the Irish Police

• Author: Claire Hamilton,Lynsey Black
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221138672
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Date: 01 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221138672

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2023, Vol. 39(1) 38 –57

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862221138672

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Article

“Strikingly and Stubbornly

High”: Investigating the

Paradox of Public Confidence

in the Irish Police

Claire Hamilton1 and Lynsey Black1

Abstract

While levels of public confidence in the police have declined internationally, the

Republic of Ireland appears to have bucked this trend with confidence levels that

remain “strikingly and stubbornly high.” This situation appears all the more puzzling

given the wave of scandals to have hit the force in recent decades, ranging from police

corruption in Donegal in the late 1990s to a more recent whistleblower scandal that

has resulted in the resignation of a slew of Ministers and high-ranking officials. Such

developments beg important questions as to the factors sustaining public confidence

over this tumultuous period. Drawing on international and domestic data, this article

aims to probe this “paradox” of public confidence in the Irish police. It argues that

although confidence is high, there is more to the dynamics of confidence in the police

in Ireland than this initial appraisal suggests. Indeed, it advances the Irish case as an

illustration both of the dimensionality of the public confidence concept and of the

complexity of the pathways to trust in the police.

Keywords

police, trust, confidence, Ireland, procedural justice

Introduction

As a “core function” of the state, it is essential that the public feel confident in the

police. The police are symbols of state authority (Bittner, 1980), and, as such, trust in

1Maynooth University, Ireland

Corresponding Author:

Claire Hamilton, School of Law and Criminology, New House, Maynooth University, Maynooth, County

Kildare W23 F2K8, Ireland.

Email: claire.hamilton@mu.ie

1138672CCJXXX10.1177/10439862221138672Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeHamilton and Black

research-article2022

Hamilton and Black 39

the police reflects the legitimacy of the state as a whole, with a lack of confidence

interpreted by some as a problematic democratic deficit (Gilling, 2010). Confidence in

the police is also essential to their effective functioning as it facilitates greater report-

ing of crime, higher levels of cooperation and compliance, and greater effectiveness

and efficiency (Jackson & Bradford, 2010; Sunshine & Tyler, 2003). In short, “public

trust makes the life of a police officer considerably easier” (Schaap, 2021, p. 28).

Moreover, as noted by Hough et al. (2013, p. 43), “encounters with the most public-

facing element of the CJS [criminal justice system]—the police—can inform ideas

about other elements of the system (especially the courts and prisons), and about its

fairness as a whole” (see also Hamilton & Black, 2019; Hough & Roberts, 2004;

Indermaur & Roberts, 2009).

Despite the vaunted importance of confidence or trust in the police, the data appear

to show a decline in these measures in certain Western jurisdictions dating from at

least the 1980s. In England and Wales, for example, British Crime Survey/Crime

Survey of England and Wales data show a pattern of decline in confidence in police

from 1984 to 2000, consistent with trends in relation to the criminal justice system

more broadly (Bradford, 2011; Bradford et al., 2009a; Hough, 2003; Jansson, 2008).

Reiner (2000) uses the marked decline between 1984 and 2000 in those rating their

local police as “very good” as support for the idea that the “haemorrhage” in support

for the police that started in the 1960s continued right up to the turn of the century. In

his view, successive scandals and a failure to evolve with society have resulted in a

police service that is now “beyond legitimation” (Reiner, 2010, p. 96). This decline in

confidence in the police corresponds with World Values Survey data showing that in

many countries confidence in the wider justice system fell considerably in the period

from the early 1980s to the early years of the new century (Van de Walle & Raine,

2008). Inglehart (1997) attributes this to a general decline in respect for authority, hav-

ing an impact on citizens’ attitudes toward the police and justice system, but also other

institutions such as the church or army. While subsequent decades have seen small but

significant increases in confidence levels, concerns about waning confidence in the

police persist such that it has now become a “fully fledged policy domain” (Tonry,

2007). Schaap (2020) also raises the valid point about the need for the police to achieve

a “re-legitimation” (Reiner, 2010, p. 99) in the very challenging conditions in which

police now operate, which include, inter alia, demands to respond to technological

developments and a changed media landscape. Such imperatives have given rise to

extensive literature on the drivers of police legitimacy and related concepts such as

confidence/trust, including an explosion of research on the impact of procedural jus-

tice (the quality of decision-making procedures and fairness in the way citizens are

treated by police) on levels of confidence/trust in law enforcement officials (Tankebe,

2008; Tyler, 2003; Tyler et al., 2007).

Against this background, the case of Ireland presents as a useful puzzle. In seeming

contrast to our nearest neighbors in the United Kingdom, Irish rates of confidence in

the police have, in the words of one leading commentator, remained “strikingly and

stubbornly high” (Mulcahy, 2016, p. 275; see also Conway, 2010, 2019; Manning,

2012). This is even more perplexing given the wave of scandals to have hit the force