Abstract
The paper aims to explore how crime and insecurity influence citizen trust in public institutions. The study takes Bangladesh as a case study to analyze individual-level data from 1200 respondents obtained from Wave 7 of the World Values Survey (WVS) conducted following a representative sampling. Employing simple linear and multiple regression models, the results demonstrate that the relationships between citizen trust and the four variables of crime and insecurity are significantly negative. The findings indicate that crime incidence in neighborhoods, victimization, fear of crime, and worrying about life detrimentally affect or erode citizen trust and confidence in public institutions. Therefore, the study concludes that combating crime, protecting public security, and maintaining law and order are crucial to restoring citizen trust in public institutions and improving government performance.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the contribution of Dr. Dursun Peksen, Dunavant Professor of the Department of Political Science, the University of Memphis, for his valuable feedback and comments on the earlier version of this manuscript. We also acknowledge the valuable feedback and comments of the reviewers on the earlier version.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).