Examining Support for Law Enforcement in Militarized Contexts

Abstract

Militarizing public security—using soldiers to carry out police work on domestic soil, such as fighting organized crime and enforcing public-health regulations—is widespread globally. Research from Political Science shows that using the military on domestic soil has negative effects. Yet, despite the policy’s negative consequences, involving the military in public security is popular with citizens in recent times. Given countries’ recent turns to militarization, what explains the continued high level of trust in the military in the region, and the consistently low level of trust in the police? This dissertation examines the drivers of public trust in law enforcement in the Americas, particularly in contexts where leaders use the national military for domestic tasks. In three empirical chapters, I identify how citizens’ characteristics and experiences could predict their level of trust in law enforcement. Taken together, the analyses in the three empirical chapters yield three cautious observations. First, individuals’ experiences appear to play a consequential role in the formation of their trust judgments in the police, but less so in their trust judgments in the military. Second, the analyses raise questions about the ability on the part of citizens to differentiate between types of military interventions. Third, these analyses provide very little evidence that the behavior of members of the military predicts trust in the police. This project contributes to scholarship on the drivers of trust in state security institutions, and how citizens formulate opinions in contexts affected by organized violence and insecurity.