Self-legitimacy of Police Officers and Prison Officers: Similarities and Differences

Abstract

This article focuses on the comparison of factors that influence the self-legitimacy of police officers and prison officers in Slovenia in different time periods. The study's primary purpose was to identify those factors that influence self-legitimacy of different actors in the criminal justice system and examine whether these factors change over time, which would confirm assumptions about the unstable nature of legitimacy. The results of regression analyses showed that police officers' self-legitimacy is influenced by their relations with colleagues, supervisors' procedural justice, and audience legitimacy. Moreover, prison officers' self-legitimacy is influenced by their relations with colleagues, supervisors' procedural justice, and age. The comparison of factors highlighted the differences between police officers and prison officers, as only relations with colleagues and supervisors' procedural justice influence self-legitimacy in both groups. While factors affecting police officers' self-legitimacy have been constant over different time periods, the same cannot be said for prison officers. This finding partially confirms assumptions about the unstable nature of legitimacy and the impact of the time component.