Personality and past experiences contribute to negative perception of the police
In developing and developed countries alike, perceptions of the police vary widely. It is an unfortunate reality that many people feel threatened by or distrustful of the police, and even more regrettable that these views are often justified. Abuse of power, torture, extortion, violence, and corruption are known to all parts of the world, albeit to varying degrees. At the same time, how a population perceives its police force has important implications for the degree to which it cooperates with and depends on law enforcement.
Understanding the factors that lead to distrust of the police is thus crucial to developing interventions for civilians and proper training for police forces. It is in this context that researchers from Nigeria sought to explore how personality traits might contribute to police perception. Their study, published in the