Instrumental and Expressive Models and Police Trust in China: A Multiple Mediation and Moderation analysis

The instrumental model suggests that the primary way to increase public trust in the police is to prevent and control crimes and enhance sense of safety, whereas expressive model denotes that police trustworthiness can be cultivated by maintaining social justice and community cohesion. To extend the existing literature, the current research aims to propose an “instrumental-expressive model” to examine its effects on Chinese police trust. Based on World Value Survey 2017-2020 (China), we implemented structural equation modelling to test the predictability of “instrumental-expressive model” on Chinese trust in the police. The results showed there is are significant relationships within the variables representing “instrumental model” (i.e., victimization experience and fear of crime) and the variables reflecting the “expressive model” (generalized trust and quality of life). Meanwhile, “instrumental model” variables have significant effects on “expressive model” variables, which in turn influence on Chinese citizens’ trust in the police. We also found that subjective social class significantly moderates the effect of victimization experience on fear of crime and social media use moderates the effects of fear of crime on Chinese police trust. Under the mutual moderation effects of subjective social class and social media use intensity, the mediation effect of the path “victimization experience → fear of crime → police trust” positively associated with social media use intensity, and negatively associated with subjective social class.