The Relationship between Social Capital and Citizen Satisfaction with POLICE

A survey of social capital and satisfaction with police was collected in two cities—one from the U.S. and one from South Korea. Using the data from the survey of 628 citizens in total, this study discusses the significance and strength of social capital factors in these two countries. In terms of demographic characteristics, participants from the U.S. and Korea were generally comparable. As a result of factor analyses, different factors of social capital emerged. For the U.S., attitudes toward diversity, activity, and life values emerged as significant factors. A relationship between cooperation and neighborhood was only significant for the Korean sample. Participation and safety/trust factors emerged as meaningful in both countries, and these two factors were found to be significant predictors of satisfaction with police for both coun-tries in subsequent regression analyses. Higher levels of activity factors were only associated with greater levels of satisfaction with police in the U.S. Some factors were found to be relevant in both countries, whereas other factors had unique influence on satisfaction with police in each country. Policy makers from both countries should cooperate to develop policies related to commonly relevant factors and to develop unique policies related to other relevant factors. Existing research has rarely taken a multifactorial approach to specifically examine its influence on social capital. Com-parison of the relationship in two different countries adds further value to the present study.