Examining fear of crime, trust in the police and collective efficacy

The purpose of the current study was to research if there was a correlation between fear of crime, trust in the police and collective efficacy in the city of Örebro. A quantitative method was used to answer the research question “Is perceived fear of crime associated with trust in the police, with collective efficacy acting as a mediator?”. Using longitudinal data from the Swedish police a total of 3997 observations were used for the statistical analysis. Three separate logistic regressions were used to determine the mediating effect of collective efficacy. The results showed no mediating effect. In addition to this, the analysis showed that fear of crime was significantly associated with both a lower collective efficacy and a lower trust in the police. Drawing upon these findings, the study concludes that the mediating effect of collective efficacy was non significant. This could be due to a flawed measurement or contradictory to previous research, collective efficacy does not mediate the relationship between fear of crime and trust in the police. The other findings were in line with previous research stating that fear of crime has an effect on collective efficacy and trust in the police.