The Bulletin of National Defence University of Ukraine

The aim of the study was to examine the key differences in the semantic dimensions of law enforcement officers’ perceptions of lawful behaviour by citizens. To achieve this aim content analysis methods were used to develop a conceptual psychosemantic model, and empirical assessments of law enforcement officers were used to identify the key elements of the image of a “law-abiding citizen” in the legal consciousness of law enforcement officers. The proposed conceptual model viewed legal consciousness as a multi-component structure that included cognitive, emotional-evaluative, value-motivational, and volitional-regulatory elements. The formation of the legal consciousness of employees of the justice system largely depended on their age and professional experience (M = 6.43 for employees with less than 5 years of experience versus M = 6.07 for employees with more than 5 years of experience), as well as activity values (M = 5.74 versus M = 5.32); This meant that the formation of the image of a “law-abiding citizen” in the legal consciousness of law enforcement officers was determined by aspects of social activity and initiative. Gender differences were less noticeable, which allowed to conclude that there are universal standards for the formation of the image of a “law-abiding citizen” in the law enforcement sphere. In the legal consciousness of the segment’s employees, a clear differentiation was also found between the images of law-abiding, conditionally convicted and convicted citizens. The image of a “law-abiding citizen” was defined as the standard of moral responsibility and normative behaviour, while the images of conditionally convicted and convicted persons circulated in the legal consciousness of law enforcement officers as potentially resocialised/capable of social activity and socially/normatively negative, respectively. The results obtained could be used in planning professional training and retraining of employees to strengthen public confidence in the national justice system

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