User:Saa269/Police legitimacy/Sidmills Peer Review

General info

 * Whose work are you reviewing?

Saa269


 * Link to draft you're reviewing
 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists)
 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists)

Evaluate the drafted changes
Lead

This article starts by defining police legitimacy, however, uses the term ‘legitimate’ in the definition. Using the word, you are defining, in the definition, may confuse the reader who does not understand the context of the word. For example, this could be changed to “Police legitimacy is the extent to which members of society view the police as a higher power authority figure, often measured in terms of the public’s willingness to obey and cooperate with the police”. According to the history edits page, edits have been completed to the lead section, the lead is concise and to the point and just needs the first definition to be further evaluated. A brief description of the major sections is given. For example, it mentions some of the negative impacts of police legitimacy and then in the body paragraph discusses how to increase police legitimacy.

Content

The articles content is not completely up to date as the newest article is 2014 and the oldest is 2004. The sources are relevant to the topic and provide well rounded information that is helpful towards the topic. Content that is missing ranges from defining what police duties or the role of police entail could potentially be helpful for the reader. There are no equity gaps. The article does not address topics related to historically underrepresented populations, but there is room to do so. Topics surrounding Indigenous or Black peoples could be introduced which would represent underrepresented populations while still providing helpful information towards police legitimacy.

Tone and Balance

The article is written in a neutral tone and does not show bias. There are several factual peer reviewed articles that provides information that helps provide structure to the article to avoid any bias. The article does not appear to be any content that is persuading or favouriting of one position or away from another. There is, however, potential for the article to lead to bias if it focuses too much towards praising or creating a negative view towards police. Police have been underrepresented in terms the diversity within the field.

Sources and References

Some sources are more current than others as there is a range of articles between 2004 to 2014. Not all the content is supported by reliable sources as two articles are not peer reviewed articles. All the link’s work except for the fourth citation called, “Legitimacy and Cooperation: Why Do People Help the Police Fight Crime in Their Communities”. The link says 404 not found and needs to be searched elsewhere to read the article and check the source. Almost half the articles are written by Tom Tyler which could lead to bias throughout the article from only getting one person’s perspective. One sentence was found that could be a form of plagiarism according to the Wikipedia guidelines. The article Race, Trust and Police Legitimacy says, “Without legitimacy police lose their ability and authority to function effectively”. The Wiki article says, “If police lose their legitimacy, it can compromise their ability and authority to work effectively”. This could be reworded to say, “When a police officer’s ability and authority to effectively complete their job is compromised there is potential for a lack of police legitimacy.” There are two articles I found that could help contribute further information to the article: Tankebe. (2013). Viewing Things Differently: The Dimensions of Public Perceptions of Police Legitimacy. Criminology (Beverly Hills), 51(1), 103–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2012.00291.x and Mazerolle, Bennett, S., Davis, J., Sargeant, E., & Manning, M. (2013). Procedural justice and police legitimacy: A systematic review of the research evidence. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 9(3), 245–274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-013-9175-2

Organization

The article is easy to read. There are no run-on sentences or spelling errors. The article is divided well, making it easy to follow along. There is room to add more information regarding police legitimacy. For example, adding in specific examples from either past or current events occurring in society to potentially help familiarize the concepts of police legitimacy. The article does include negative and positive ways that contribute to police legitimacy which is helpful.

Images and Media

There are no images added to this article. An image of police interacting with the community either day to day or during an event. For example, a photo of police involvement in a protest could potentially help further the article.

Overall Impressions

According to the talk page and history of the articles edits there has not been many changes to the original article. There are a few edits I have provided above that could further strengthen and length the article. The only contribution I was able to see was changes to the lead which from my perspective the lead is strong. Overall, further research to lengthen the article and going over the sources again to avoid plagiarism should be done.