Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and the Effective Rule of Law

Advances in Social Sciences and Management, 2024

This research paper examines how a procedural justice policing approach affects how people perceive their duty to follow police orders. It investigates whether the degree of confidence that a citizen has in law enforcement during a police-citizen encounter may have an impact on how procedural justice functions in relation to their duty to uphold the law. The effectiveness of procedural justice in enticing citizens to uphold the law is examined, as well as the possibility that citizens' trust in the authorities may play a role in this. Numerous studies have examined how procedural justice affects people's attitudes toward and cooperation with the police and other elements of the criminal justice system, but many of these investigations did not break down procedural justice into its different strands, such as police procedural justice. The public's perception of the police will increase if they execute their authority in a procedurally fair manner, according to Tyler's process-based model of policing. In the past, process-based study has largely ignored public trust in the police in favor of focusing on the sources of legitimacy. Tyler's process-based policing model argues that the police can improve the public's view of their legitimacy and dependability by exercising their power in a procedurally fair manner. Up until now, process-based research has mostly disregarded the legitimacy of the police and focused on the sources of legitimacy.

1. Social and moral connections 2. Design of the study FOREWORD This well written and engaging volume articulates and empirically supports a new and innovative approach to policing based upon the goal of creating and maintaining the belief among members of the public that police authority is legitimate. In so doing the authors are providing a new framework for thinking about the goals of policing, one that emphasizes how police policies and practices are experienced within policed communities. Rather than concentrating authority over policing decisions within higher level policing authorities, and rather than evaluating police effectiveness in terms of success in combating particular forms of crime defined by police professionals, this approach suggests that the community needs to play a strong role in defining its problems and in determining how the police should address those problems.

In the U.S., the exercise of police authority—and the public’s trust that police authority is used properly—is a recurring concern. Contemporary prescriptions for police reform hold that the public would better trust the police and feel a greater obligation to comply and cooperate if police-citizen interactions were marked by higher levels of procedural justice by police. In this book, authors Robert E. Worden and Sarah J. McLean argue that the procedural justice model of reform is a mirage. From a distance, procedural justice seemingly offers a relief from strained police-community relations. But a closer look at police organizations and police-citizen interactions shows that the relief offered by such reform actually proves illusory.

Law and Human Behavior, 2018

This paper expands previous conceptualizations of appropriate police behavior beyond procedural justice. The focus of the current study is on the notion of bounded authority – i.e. acting within the limits of one’s rightful authority. According to work on legal socialization, US citizens come to acquire three dimensions of values that determine how authorities ought to behave: (a) neutral, consistent and transparent decision-making; (b) interpersonal treatment that conveys respect, dignity and concern; and (c) respecting the limits of one’s rightful power. Using survey data from a nationally representative sample of US adults, we show that concerns over bounded authority, respectful treatment, and neutral decision-making combine to form a strong predictor of police and legal legitimacy. We also find that legal legitimacy is associated with greater compliance behavior, controlling for personal morality and perceived likelihood of sanctions. We discuss the implications of a boundary p...

Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 2013

The traditional goal of legal authorities has been to obtain widespread public compliance with the law. Empirical research findings have shown that legitimacy – typically operationalized as the perceived obligation to obey and trust and confidence in the relevant institutions – plays an important role in achieving such compliance. But over time the goals of legal authorities have broadened in two ways. First, they increasingly include the desire to motivate willing cooperation, with legal authorities and members of the public working together to produce social order. Second, conceptions of the goals of the legal system have broadened to include the importance of promoting public engagement in communities in efforts to build social, political and economic vitality. Drawing on these broader goals – and building upon recent conceptual advances in the meaning of legitimacy – we report findings from a major new national survey of US citizens. We examine the role that legitimacy plays in achieving each of these goals of law and in defining the policies and practices of the police and courts which influence legitimacy. Importantly, we also consider whether a focus on achieving this broader set of goals leads to a need to reexamine the traditional theoretical conception of legitimacy. Our findings support the utility of a multidimensional conception of legitimacy that differentiates between consent to authority and normative justifiability of power.

2013

Police legitimacy refers to the belief that when the public perceives the police to be legitimate political authorities, they are more likely to voluntarily comply with the law. The study tested the hypotheses derived from a process-based model of policing using survey data collected from a sample of the population in Ottawa, Canada. Data for this study were obtained through a survey of a random selection of residents (n = 427) and analyzed using linear regression. Findings support previous research. However, there was not the expected statistically significant relationship between police legitimacy and compliance with the law. Keywords: Distributive justice, police legitimacy, procedural justice, process-based policing, police performance, police reform

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 2007

Policing research and theory emphasises the importance of supportive relationships between police and the communities they serve in increasing police effectiveness in reducing crime and disorder. A key reason people support police is that they view police as legitimate. The existing research literature, primarily from the United States, indicates that the most important factor in public assessments of police legitimacy is procedural justice. The present study is the first in an Australian jurisdiction to examine the effect of procedural justice and police legitimacy on public satisfaction with police. Using responses to a large postal survey (n = 2611), findings show that people who believe police use procedural justice when they exercise their authority are more likely to view police as legitimate, and in turn are more satisfied with police services. This study differs to US-based research in the greater importance of people's evaluations of instrumental factors in judgments of...

Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.