Public satisfaction with the South Korean Police: The effect of residential location in a rapidly industrializing nation Eui-Gab Hwang * , Edmund F. McGarrell, Bruce L. Benson School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, 560 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824-1118, United States Abstract Recent years have witnessed growing research interest in citizen perceptions of the police. This was likely the result of the community policing movement, which sought to strengthen ties between citizens and the police, as well as to concerns about the legitimacy of the police. Most of this research focused on police agencies in the United States, and little research had been conducted on citizen perceptions of the police in Asian countries. This study sought to fill this void through an analysis of citizen perceptions of the police in South Korea. To address these issues, telephone interview survey data gathered from 11,500 randomly selected citizens were obtained in the rapidly industrializing country, South Korea. Several sets of multiple-regression models were estimated to assess the effect of urbanization, demographics, evaluations of police services, and perceived corruption on citizen satisfaction with police. The results suggested that citizens in small to mid-sized cities and large urban cities were less satisfied with police than were residents of rural areas. In addition, age, evaluations of police service, and perceptions of corruption were related to citizen satisfaction. The results were discussed in comparison to previous research in Asia and the United States and other Western countries. D 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction In addition to the role of traditional law enforcement, police are expected to facilitate public quality of life by becoming engaged in the community (Greene, 2000; Trojanowicz & Dixon, 1974). The police draw closer to that goal by addressing the problems of fear and inse- curity. Citizen support is essential for police work to succeed; it is necessary that the two co-exist to build a safe community and achieve mutual benefits. Increas- ing concern over the relationship between police and the community prompted scholars to examine the na- ture of citizen attitudes toward police service, policy, and performance. Previous research focused on the effects of citizen characteristics, citizen experiences with the police, or attitudinal dimensions on citizen satisfaction and eval- uation of the police, mostly from an urban, U.S. context (Austin & Vogel, 1995; Brandl, Frank, Wor- den, & Bynum, 1994; Decker, 1981; Greene, 2000; Reisig & Correia, 1997; Reisig & Parks, 2003; Smith & Hawkins, 1973; Trojanowicz & Dixon, 1974). Additional research examined the effects of neighbor- hoods and community characteristics on citizen atti- tudes toward the police (Davis, 1990; Reisig & Parks, 2003). Interestingly, few studies compared public attitudes across varied community contexts ranging from rural areas, small to mid-sized cities, and large cities. Furthermore, little research existed regarding citizen attitudes toward police in non-U.S. settings (notable exceptions from Asia included Cao & Hou, 2001; Cao, Stack, & Sun, 1998; Cho, 2002; 0047-2352/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2005.08.007 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 517 347 6750. E-mail address: hwangeu1@msu.edu (E.-G. Hwang). Journal of Criminal Justice 33 (2005) 585 – 599