Umeå universitets logga

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between the frequency of complaintsagainst the police and public trust in the police at the municipal level in Sweden. The studyalso analyzes how factors such as education level, income, and ethnic background affect trust.The study uses theories of institutional trust, street-level bureaucracy and procedural justice,and employing linear regression and multivariate analysis on secondary data from surveysand registry data. The results show that there is no statistically significant relationshipbetween the number of complaints against the police and trust in the police. Education levelhas a positive and significant effect on trust, while income has a positive but non-significanteffect. Individuals with a foreign background generally have higher trust in the policecompared to individuals with a Swedish background. The study provides insights into howvarious factors influence trust in the police and emphasizes the need to investigate additionalvariables to understand this complex phenomenon. Previous research has shown mixedresults regarding the impact of complaints on trust, highlighting the importance of contextand additional factors.