Attitudes Toward the Police Among Swedish and Japanese University Students.

Abstract: Citizens' attitudes toward the police underlies police legitimacy. The aim of the current study was to investigate Swedish and Japanese university students’ attitudes toward the police and how these may differ. The data was collected through a Qualtrics survey, which was sent out to universities, posted on social medias and forums. 99 Swedish and 83 Japanese university students participated in the study. The results showed that regardless of the structural differences between the Swedish and Japanese police, gender and recent police contact, the Swedish and Japanese university students had similar levels of moderately positive attitudes toward the police. The similarities in police contact and cultural understanding of law-abidingness between Sweden and Japan were identified as possible causes for this result.