Exploring Police Legitimacy Perceptions Among Arab and Chaldean Business Owners in Detroit

Authors

Vaughn J. Crichlow, Florida Atlantic University
Edmund F. McGarrell, Michigan State University

Abstract

"Most agree that police officers cannot do their jobs effectively without the support of community members. However, little is known about the perceptions of small business owners who could potentially make a meaningful contribution to safety and security in such communities. There is also a paucity of research on immigrant-owned businesses in disorderly urban communities. To address the gap, this study explores the attitudes of small business owners toward the police in Detroit, Michigan, a city known for high levels of violent crime and presents an analysis of the qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews with small business owners (n = 39), with a special focus on Arab and Chaldean business owners. The findings indicate that although procedural justice perceptions are closely associated with police legitimacy perceptions, business owners are equally concerned about the effectiveness of police in dealing with crime. In particular, the perceived risk of victimization influences many Arab and Chaldean business owners’ perceptions of police. The policy implications of these findings are discussed."

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Crichlow, Vaughn J. and McGarrell, Edmund F. (2015) "Exploring Police Legitimacy Perceptions Among Arab and Chaldean Business Owners in Detroit," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 3: No. 2, Article 1.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol3/iss2/1