An Assessment of Democratic Policing in Turkey
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| Author | Akin Karatay,Kendra N. Bowen,James J. Vardalis,Michael Wiatrowski |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijps.2012.14.4.291 |
| Subject Matter | Paper |
An assessment of democratic policing in
Turkey
Akin Karatay†, Michael Wiatrowski§, James J. Vardalis‡and
Kendra N. Bowen§
‡(Corresponding author) Department of Criminal Justice, Tarleton State University,
Box T-0665, Stephenville, TX 76402, USA. Tel.: +1 254 968 9024; email:
jvardalis@tarleton.edu
†University of Southern Mississippi
§Tarleton State University
Submitted 8 May 2012, accepted 12 August 2012
Keywords: corruption, general welfare, failed state, rule of law, democracy
Akin Karatay
received his PhD in Criminology in
2009 from the University of Southern Mississippi.
He is presently a police superintendent third
class in Turkey. His interests are in the field of
democratic policing and post-conflict transitions
and democratic development.
Michael Wiatrowski
received his PhD in 1978
from Portland State University. He served as a
military police lieutenant in Vietnam and with the
UN International Police Task Force in 1996 in
Sarajevo Bosnia and in Haiti. He taught as a
tenured professor until 2000 and then was a
senior research associate at the Institute for Edu-
cation Science at the Department of Education.
He has published extensively in the areas of
delinquency, juvenile justice and crime
prevention.
James J. Vardalis
is an associate professor of
Criminal Justice and Department Chair at
Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas.
In addition to his 15 full-time years as a police
supervisor, he is a Marine Corps Vietnam vet-
eran. Dr Vardalis has published two textbooks
and 21 peer-reviewed articles and continues to
service as a consultant to several law enforce-
ment agencies.
Kendra N. Bowen
is an assistant professor of
criminal justice at Tarleton State University. Her
research interests include violence and victim-
isation, as well as criminal justice policy.
A
BSTRACT
This study contends that democracy can be endur-
ing only when the police of a nation accept and
embody democratic values in their practices. As an
example of a growing trend towards democracy
among developing countries, Turkey is engaged in
a programme of admittance to the European
Union. Recently, the Turkey National Police
(TNP) has implemented a series of reforms and
changes resulting in a transformation towards
democratic policing. This study examined the
implementation of a democratic policing frame-
work, using quantitative methods to assess the
attitudes of 384 TNP officers. Its focus was the
attitudes, values and characteristics of TNP mem-
bers, organisational capacity, police culture and
other contemporary criminal justice policies of the
TNP. Multiple regression (OLS) revealed that
democratic development, departmental leadership,
cynicism for the reforms and aggressive law
enforcement orientation were significantly related
to the acceptance of democratic policing. Demo-
graphic variables, except tenure, were not sig-
nificantly related to democratic policing. In
conclusion, democratic policing was accepted by
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume 14 Number 4
International Journal of Police
Science and Management,
Vol. 14 No. 4, 2012, pp. 299–311.
DOI: 10.1350/ijps.2012.14.4.291
Page 299
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