Dull compulsion or perceived legitimacy? Assessing why people comply with the law in Nigeria

Akinlabi, Oluwagbenga and Murphy, Kristina (2018) Dull compulsion or perceived legitimacy? Assessing why people comply with the law in Nigeria. Police Practice and Research, 19 (2). pp. 186-201. ISSN 1561-4263

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2018.1418170

Abstract

Do people living in societies rife with police corruption comply with the law because they perceive police as legitimate or because of their feelings of endemic powerlessness (i.e., what Tankebe (2009) refers to as dull compulsion)? Prior studies have shown that compliance is driven primarily by perceptions that authorities and their laws are legitimate and entitled to be obeyed. Using cross-sectional survey data collected from Southwest Nigeria, this study found that perceptions of police effectiveness and procedural justice were related to Nigerians’ self-reported compliance with the law. Importantly, and unexpectedly, neither dull compulsion nor perceptions of police legitimacy were related to Nigerians’ self-reported compliance behaviour. The implications of these findings for policing in postcolonial African societies are discussed.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Procedural justice, police effectiveness, police corruption, police legitimacy, dull compulsion, compliance with the law
Subjects: L900 Others in Social studies
Department: Faculties > Arts, Design and Social Sciences > Social Sciences
Depositing User: John Coen
Date Deposited: 20 Aug 2020 13:48
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 12:19
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/44145

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