Religion and police legitimacy: The case of Israel's Haredi community

ABSTRACT

This dissertation analyzes police legitimacy within a Jewish religious minority community in Israel, the Haredim. Informed by theories of procedural justice, social capital, integrative enclave, and community-society, the study explores the overarching theme of religion in police legitimacy. The chapters are organized into three distinct yet inter-related case studies and implement various research designs. In these chapters, I discuss possible mechanisms that have contributed to the surprising improvement in police legitimacy within this community. In the first article, I describe the Israeli-Haredi societal situation over the last twenty years and identify forces of modernization that have contributed to higher acceptance and Haredi participation with the police, namely increased trust and cooperation. I suggest that police legitimacy has gradually developed in a dialogical manner between the community and the police. The second article discusses brokerage with the police and demonstrates how, during the first wave of COVID-19, the community shifted its communication channels with the police, leaning more heavily on professional knowledge brokers rather than traditional religious brokers. This article discusses the potential for long-term improvement of police legitimacy within the community as a result of this shift in social capital. The third article focuses on organizations as socialization mechanisms that provide a safe space for Haredim to explore the Israeli public sphere and vice versa. Organizations that assist the police in various matters, and include Haredi volunteers, provide this religious minority with the opportunity to enhance communication with the police while keeping intact religious observance. In conclusion, the dissertation provides insight into the role of religion in policing and police legitimacy, offering an important view of religion as a unique factor. Theoretically, the dissertation contributes to the understanding of (1) how police legitimacy develops over time and how religion interacts with this process;(2) how social capital access, and hence communication channels with the police, may shift under certain circumstances within religious communities;and (3) how religious organizations with ties to the police working with integrative enclaves serve as agents of socialization. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed in all three articles, as well as in the conclusion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)