The legitimacy of the police in Serbia

Abstract

This paper analyses the changes in the legitimacy of the Serbian police in wider social and political contexts that occurred in the last two decades. The paper presents the analysis of the legitimacy of governmental/political authority and police in the Serbian academic community. Through the analysis of the social context and the empirical findings of surveys on the public opinion, the authors examined the delegitimization of the Serbian police during 19902000, and an attempt for its re-legitimisation after the launch of the reforms of the Ministry of the Interior in 2000. In this research, a survey was conducted on a sample of the students at the Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies and the students at the Faculty of Security Studies of the University of Belgrade in order to determine how they perceive the legitimacy of the Serbian police. The attitudes of the students from the two faculties were compared after the survey results. In conclusion, the paper provides a review on possible perspectives of perceptions on the legitimacy of the Serbian police.