Award Date

5-15-2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Criminal Justice

First Committee Member

Hong Lu

Second Committee Member

Tamara Herold

Third Committee Member

William Sousa

Fourth Committee Member

Chenghu Zhang

Number of Pages

242

Abstract

Political protests garner immense attention during academic, socio-political, and policy discourse discussions. More specifically, the manner in which government, police, and protestors interact during protest events is heavily observed and debated. Research shows that legitimacy is established when power-holders act in accordance with legal frameworks and various political and institutional norms. With focus on the intersection of legitimacy and protest policing, the current study aims to explore how political, legal, and institutional legitimacy influence police compliance with state and institutional directives, and protestor compliance with police directives in two distinct sociopolitical contexts.

For this purpose, qualitative data was collected through open-ended, semi-structured interviews with United States (US) and Myanmar police officers regarding protest policing. Given that studies on Myanmar policing are rare, its recent military coup and the subsequent police suppression of protests provide an ideal laboratory for a comparative analysis of protest policing. In addition, the recent growing prevalence of protests in the US have also generated concerns towards police practices related to crowd control and protest management. Using thematic analysis, the findings reveal that officers in both countries reference similar conceptual elements when discussing legitimacy, including legality, authority, public acceptance, and order maintenance. However, the meanings, emphases, and normative tones attached to these concepts diverge markedly. US. Officers tend to frame legitimacy in terms of protection of civil rights, legality, neutrality, whereas Myanmar officers emphasize restriction of civil rights, legal subordination, and political influence.

These findings suggest that legitimacy is not a universally interpreted construct but is shaped by broader political and institutional contexts. Theoretically, the study highlights the contextual nature of legitimacy within policing scholarship. Practically, it suggests that strategies aimed at enhancing police legitimacy and managing protest must account for context-specific understandings of authority and compliance. Ultimately, this research will shed light on and contribute to ongoing conversations on governance, public trust in police institutions, and strategies for managing civil unrest in democratic and authoritarian regimes.

Keywords

Compliance; Legal legitimacy; Myanmar protest policing; Police legitimacy; Political legitimacy; US protest policing

Disciplines

Criminology | Criminology and Criminal Justice | Social and Behavioral Sciences

File Format

PDF

File Size

1600 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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