Using Public Priorities To Disentangle the Dimensions of Procedural Justice and Trustworthiness In Police–Citizen Interactions

Author(s):  
Joseph A Hamm ◽  
Scott E Wolfe

Abstract Multidimensional constructs like procedural justice and trustworthiness are important drivers of public trust in the police. Less attention has been paid, however, to the differential import of the dimensions of procedural justice (voice, respect and impartiality) or trustworthiness (ability, benevolence and integrity). A national convenience sample of US residents was asked to prioritize among the dimensions of procedural justice (Study 1) or trustworthiness (Study 2) in designing the officer with whom they would want to interact in each of the four scenarios. These scenarios were then varied as a function of the ostensible severity and concreteness of the salient, police-controlled harm. Our results suggest that, when forced to allocate limited resources among them, participants systematically prioritized some dimensions over others. The findings also shed preliminary light on the elements of the situation that may impact that prioritization.

Author(s):  
Renée J. Mitchell ◽  
Kendall Von Zoller

Human beings are social animals inhabiting a world where unspoken, nonverbal body language dominates the perception of the listener. It has been shown that nonverbal behaviors effect perception more intently than verbal communication. Police-citizen interactions are a complex process where verbal and nonverbal interactions are occurring simultaneously and interpreted immediately, leading to multiple chances for misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the officer's intent. With little research on the actual techniques to create the perception of police legitimacy, the authors intend to link communicative intelligence to the verbal and physical behaviors officers should engage in to enhance procedural justice and improve police legitimacy. They posit that the citizen's perceived level of police fairness is derived from the officer's treatment of the citizen which is significantly influenced by how the officer communicates with the citizen.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Julius Yam

A hybrid regime court faces a legitimacy paradox: an activist court risks attracting backlash from the incumbent, whereas a deferential court may undermine public trust. The Hong Kong courts, at least in the twenty or so years following handover, provide an example of courts successfully navigating the legitimacy paradox despite the conflicting expectations from political actors. This article draws on the experiences of the Hong Kong courts to better understand the legitimacy paradox. It identifies three tools that Hong Kong courts have used to maneuver through the paradox, namely (1) the differential treatment of cases according to political stakes; (2) the use of comparative jurisprudence; and (3) the commitment to procedural justice. Studying these techniques may provide relevant insights to courts in similarly constrained political environments as to how judicial legitimacy can be earned. The article also reflects on the institutional future of Hong Kong courts in light of the increasing polarization of Hong Kong society as a result of the anti-extradition bill protests and signs of greater interference from Mainland China.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 779-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Schulenberg ◽  
Allison Chenier ◽  
Sonya Buffone ◽  
Christine Wojciechowski

Author(s):  
Pumlani Msenge ◽  
Ogochukwu I. Nzewi

The South African local government context has been marred by persistent citizen protests that continue to jeopardise public administrators’ quest for effective service rendering. Such protests have been attributed to the disregard of citizen participation in local government and unresponsive service rendering, amongst other factors. Meaningful citizen participation is seen as a precondition for the establishment of trust between communities and public administrators. This article, delving into the empirical literature, presents a citizen participation and public trust model aimed at minimising service delivery protests in South Africa. It argues that whilst lack of community trust has been lauded as one of the factors that have brewed citizen protests over the years, there is evidence to show that between the core values of procedural justice and public trust, citizen perception of power to influence may be vital to minimise proclivity to protest. The article finds that in addition to the interactional and informational justice components of procedural justice, meaningful citizen participation can be measured as a combination of these justice areas with mechanisms that highlight citizens’ positive perceptions of their power to influence decisions. As recommendations, the article argues that indeed lack of community involvement in municipal processes has the potential to break down trust and explode into service delivery protests. However, the article concludes that ensuring meaningful participation in local government decision-making processes, as defined in this article, is a precondition for building community trust and limiting the outbreak of service delivery protests in the local government context.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katy Sindall ◽  
Daniel J. McCarthy ◽  
Ian Brunton-Smith

Much is now known about public trust and confidence in the police, especially regarding the important role of procedural justice in police–citizen engagements. However, less is known about perceptions of the police amongst young people and how their views are formed. We use survey data from more than 1500 young people aged 10–15 years whose parents were also interviewed in the Crime Survey for England and Wales (2010–12) to explore the extent that children’s views of the police correspond with those of their parents. We find a strong and consistent link between the views of children and their parents – a relationship moderated by perceptions of police visibility, experience of victimization and the age of the child.


Author(s):  
Anjuli Van Damme

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to validate an instrument, based on previous research, for measuring procedurally just and unjust police behavior during interactions with citizens. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from September 2015 to January 2016 using systematic social observations in two local police forces in Belgium. A total of 284 full police-citizen interactions were observed. The authors describe and explain how the procedurally (un)just police behavior is measured and discuss existing research on the subject. The authors also test the validity of the instrument and stress the importance of making a distinction between procedurally just and unjust behavior, which has often been overlooked in previous research. Findings The measurement instrument passed the validity test, except for the procedurally just neutrality sub-index. The findings also confirm that both procedurally just and procedurally unjust police behavior can occur in the same interaction. Moreover, except for the trustworthy sub-indexes, the authors found a stronger negative correlation of procedurally unjust behavior with the citizen’s behavior compared to the strength of the positive correlations of the procedural justice indexes. Research limitations/implications The findings confirm a usable measurement instrument for research about procedural justice using systematic social observations. Important improvements were made to instruments that have been utilized in previous research. One of the most important recommendations for future research is to make a distinction between procedurally just and unjust police behavior. Originality/value This study is the first in which all four elements of police procedurally just behavior as well as their four procedurally unjust variants were measured using systematic social observations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-208
Author(s):  
Nofi Sri Utami ◽  
Suteki Suteki ◽  
Retno Saraswati ◽  
Arief Budiono

Kondisi hukum dan aparat hukum di semua tingkatan termasuk hakim, dipenjara dalam positivisme yang fatal. Pemahaman ini mereduksi hukum hanya sebagai hukum dan peraturan deterministik, mekanistik dan esoteris belaka. Hukum soliter adalah hukum soliter tanpa memasukkan transendensi, moralitas, atau kebiasaan. Hasil akhir dari paradigma ini hanya mampu menghadirkan kepastian hukum tetapi kurang keadilan. Akar semua krisis dan runtuhnya kepercayaan publik pada hukum berasal dari hukum yang hanya mendidik corong undang-undang. Hukum yang mengajarkan legislasi sebagai ideologi sakral, hukum itu hanya hukum atau regulasi. Lulusan hukum baru yang mengisi posisi ahli hukum memiliki keterampilan tetapi mereka kurang empati, mengabaikan keadilan publik dan korup. Diperlukan paradigma pilihan hukum baru, yaitu realisme hukum teistik yang memberikan kebebasan kepada para hakim dan aparat hukum lainnya dari belenggu keadilan prosedural dalam gaya positivisme. Melalui hukum dengan paradigma Realisme Hukum Teistik, diharapkan aparatur hukum akan memiliki kebajikan, untuk dapat membaca substansi keadilan dengan keimanannya kepada Allah daripada sekadar menjadi corong hukum dan mampu menjaga dari perilaku tercela atas dasar imannya.The condition that law and legal apparatus in all levels including judges, are imprisoned in fatal positivism. This understanding reduces the law only as mere deterministic, mechanistic and esoteric laws and regulations. Solitary law is solitary law without include the transcendence, morality, or custom. The final result of this paradigm is only able to present legal certainty but lack of justice. The roots of all crises and the collapse of public trust in the law are originated from a law that educates only the mouthpiece of the legislation. The law that teaches the legislation as a sacred ideology, the law is just law or regulation. Fresh graduate of law who fill positions of legal apparatus experts have skills but they are lack of empathy, neglect of public justice and corrupt. A new legal choice paradigm is needed, namely theistic legal realism which gives judges and other legal apparatuses the freedom from the shackles of procedural justice in the style of positivism. Through the law with the Theistic Legal Realism paradigm, it is expected that the legal apparatus will have virtue, to be able to read the substance of justice with his faith in Allah rather than merely being a mouthpiece of the law and be able to guard against despicable behavior on the basis of his faith.


Author(s):  
Dylan B. Jackson ◽  
Cashen M. Boccio ◽  
Alexander Testa ◽  
Michael G. Vaughn

The current study examines whether the link between low self-control and perceptions of procedural justice among urban-born youth is contingent on acts of officer intrusiveness. Data come from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and are restricted to youth reporting lifetime police stops at Year 15 ( N = 918). Findings reveal that the association between low self-control and diminished perceptions of procedural justice is significantly moderated by officer intrusiveness. To be precise, low self-control became more relevant in diminished perceptions of procedural justice as officer intrusiveness decreased. The findings carry implications for police-citizen interactions, including the training of police officers in developmental science and how low self-control may shape youth perceptions of police encounters.


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