Good Policing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Hough
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Justice Theory ◽  
Police Recruits ◽  
The Public ◽  
Police Contacts ◽  
The Law

This book conveys the ideas behind procedural justice theory as they apply to policing. It sets out important but complex ideas in jargon-free language to non-specialist readers with an interest in policing – including serving police officers and police recruits as they embark on a degree-level entry programme into the police service. The book’s main message is that public trust in the police builds police legitimacy, and people comply with the law and cooperate with the police when they see the police as legitimate. It argues that public trust in the police serves as the bedrock of police legitimacy. Procedural justice theory provides an account of the reasons why people obey the law that stresses the importance of fair and respectful treatment of the public, and an alignment between policing practice and people’s moral standards. It provides a narrative about crime control that questions the tough ‘no-nonsense’ solutions that politicians often reach for when crime problems emerge. The book’s main policy recommendations are that policing strategies and tactics should always be assessed against criteria of legitimacy, and that the quality of treatment in police contacts with the public is one of the keys to good policing.

scholarly journals On the identity dynamics of police legitimacy and public cooperation among a general population and a London street population

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arabella Kyprianides ◽  
Ben Bradford ◽  
Jonathan Jackson ◽  
Julia Yesberg ◽  
Clifford Stott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Population Sample ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Justice Theory ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
The Public ◽  
Relational Identification ◽  
Police Activity

Social identity is a core aspect of procedural justice theory, which predicts that fair treatment at the hands of power holders such as police expresses, communicates and generates feelings of inclusion, status and belonging within salient social categories. In turn, a sense of shared group membership with power-holders, with police officers as powerful symbolic representatives of “law-abiding society”, engenders trust, legitimacy and cooperation. Yet, this aspect of the theory is rarely explicitly considered in empirical research. Moreover, the theory rests on the under-examined assumption that the police represent one fixed and stable superordinate group, including the often marginalised people with whom they interact, and that it is only superordinate identification that is important to legitimacy and cooperation. In this paper we present results from two UK-based studies that explore the identity dynamics of procedural justice theory. We reason that the police represent not only that the ‘law-abiding, national citizen’ superordinate group, but also a symbol of order/conflict and a range of connected social categories that can generate relational identification. First, we use a general population sample to show that relational identification with police, as well as identification as a ‘law-abiding citizen’, mediate some of association between procedural justice and legitimacy and are both stronger predictors of cooperation than legitimacy. Second, a sample of people living on the streets of London is used to explore these same relationships among a highly marginalised group for whom the police might represent a salient outgroup. We find that relational and superordinate identification are both strong positive predictors of cooperation, while legitimacy is not. These results have important implications for our understanding of both police legitimacy and public cooperation, as well as the extent to which police activity can serve to include—or exclude—members of the public.

How Do the Components of Procedural Justice and Driver Race Influence Encounter-Specific Perceptions of Police Legitimacy During Traffic Stops?

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1200-1216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Starr J. Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Treatment Quality ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Perceptions Of Police ◽  
Influence Perceptions

Procedural justice is often recognized as the key antecedent of police legitimacy. However, less is known about how the components of procedural justice, treatment and decision-making quality, influence perceptions of police legitimacy. This study utilizes a 2 × 2 × 2 survey experiment to explore the direct effects of the components of procedural justice, and the moderating effects of driver race, on perceptions of encounter-specific fairness and legitimacy. Results indicate that treatment quality is a more salient predictor of encounter-specific fairness and legitimacy than decision-making quality. In addition, simple effects analyses reveal that driver race moderates perceptions of encounter-specific fairness but not encounter-specific perceptions of legitimacy. The findings imply that police officers should emphasize respectful treatment during encounters with the public.

Achieving Fairness in Policing

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten Van Craen ◽  
Wesley G. Skogan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
The Public ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Relationship

Decades of research on public support for the police has documented the prominent role of procedural justice in shaping popular views of police legitimacy and the predisposition of citizens to comply and cooperate with them. However, much less attention has been given to the issue of how to get police officers to actually act in accord with its principles when they interact with the public. Reminders of the importance and the difficulty of fostering police legitimacy are not hard to come by, as witnessed in events in the United States during 2014 to 2015. This article addresses the hard, multifaceted issue of fostering procedural justice in the ranks. It theorizes and assesses the relationship between fair supervision and fair policing. The results of our study indicate that perceived internal procedural justice is directly related to support for external procedural justice (modeling thesis), and also indirectly, via trust in citizens.

Ethics, justice and policing

Good Policing ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Mike Hough
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Structural Inequality ◽  
Normative Foundation ◽  
Low Visibility ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
The Law ◽  
Compliance With The Law

This chapter explores ethical issues that are raised by procedural justice approaches to policing. Both in individual contacts between police and public and at a societal level, problems can result from the use of low-visibility techniques for securing compliance. There is a risk that people’s choices about compliance with the law are being reshaped by stealth: their autonomy as citizens may be eroded when police officers manage them into compliance through a display of civility and respect. At a societal level, the appearance of the police as an even-handed and fair institution can serve as an ‘ideological cloak’ that hides from public view structural inequality and unfairness. The chapter argues that these risks can be mitigated if police commit to the normative foundation of procedural justice, and do not simply focus on the instrumental benefits of the approach. They need to recognise their duty to treat citizens fairly and with respect.

Stop and Search as a Respectful Encounter

2020 ◽  
pp. 68-94
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Watson
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Minority Ethnic Groups ◽  
Statutory Power ◽  
Stop And Search ◽  
Minority Ethnic

In this chapter, there is a shift in focus to the statutory power of the police to stop and search, the controversial status of which is not new. Less well documented, however, is that stop and search is highly relevant to the study of respect, since the practice tends to undermine the value, if not render it conspicuously absent. The chapter is organised as follows. The opening section explores how we might sharpen our critique of stop and search by framing it in terms of respect. Stop and search—a common form of adversarial contact between the police and the public—taps into deep and ingrained tensions between preventive policing, the exercise of coercive state authority, due process, and crime control. Among the most incisive criticisms of the power are its disproportionate and discriminatory exercise in relation to minority ethnic groups, its role in eroding police legitimacy, and the invasion of privacy and violation of bodily integrity necessitated by the search itself. The next section assesses three prominent proposals for the reform of stop and search—procedural justice training for police officers, tighter legal regulation of the power, and abolition—in terms of respect.

Moral motives, police legitimacy and acceptance of force

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 799-815
Author(s):  
Jasmine R. Silver
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Legitimacy Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Perceptions Of Police ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Moral Motive

PurposeThis study extends legitimacy theory by examining individualizing and binding moral motives and perceptions of police.Design/methodology/approachData are drawn from an online survey of the public (N = 961). OLS regression is used to predict global perceptions of legitimacy, as well as department legitimacy and acceptance of force in an experimental vignette that manipulates procedural justice.FindingsThe binding moral motive is associated with greater global and department legitimacy and acceptance of force. The individualizing moral motive is associated with reduced global legitimacy and acceptance of force, and with department legitimacy when procedural justice is low. Perceptions of legitimacy mediate the effects of the binding moral motive on acceptance of force and of the individualizing moral motive when procedural justice is low.Research limitations/implicationsThis study identifies novel antecedents of police legitimacy and acceptance of force (i.e. binding and individualizing moral motives).Social implicationsThis study provides insight into public attitudes regarding use of force.Originality/valueThis study is the first to propose and test a link between binding and individualizing moral motives and perceptions of police.

scholarly journals "The unstoppable psychopathic authority"

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pardis Tabaee Damavandi
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Police Misconduct ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Law ◽  
Opinion Article ◽  
Miscarriage Of Justice

This is an opinion article based on personal experience. There are now at least another two cases involving foreign researchers on national territory and two more cases overseas of an actor and foreign actress too who were dragged into court against each other for miscarriage of justice. Subornation of all witnesses to malicious prosecution should also be addressed. These public humiliations and attempted loss to reputation are deleterious to all members of the public and do not in any way place the police misconduct officer nor a misconduct judge nor a misconduct prosecutor in a superior intellectual position. Real police officers are those who have knowledge of the law in a way that contributes and improves society and thankfully those heroes still exist in other places but unfortunately not in Scotland (UK) and not in some cities overseas. The process of interacting with these people is very exhausting and unhealthy but enlisting third party help should improve the quality of life of victims. Although psychopaths are liked by the majority of individuals, it is only the 'normal' victim who gets to know their true dark nature and this is why support may seem scant initially.

Promoting Muslims’ cooperation with police in counter-terrorism

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 544-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Murphy ◽  
Natasha S. Madon ◽  
Adrian Cherney
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Justice Perceptions ◽  
Willingness To Report ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Willingness To Cooperate

Purpose Procedural justice is important for fostering peoples’ willingness to cooperate with police. Theorizing suggests this relationship results because procedural justice enhances perceptions that the police are legitimate and entitled to be supported. The purpose of this paper is to examine how legitimacy perceptions moderate the effect of procedural justice policing on Muslims’ willingness to cooperate with police. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from 800 Muslims in Australia are used. Findings This study shows Muslims’ procedural justice perceptions are positively associated with two types of cooperation: willingness to cooperate with police in general crime control efforts; and willingness to report terror threats to police. Muslims’ perceptions of police legitimacy and law legitimacy also influence willingness to cooperate. Specifically, police legitimacy is more important for predicting general willingness to cooperate with police, while law legitimacy is more important for predicting Muslims’ willingness to report terror threats. Importantly, legitimacy perceptions moderate the relationship between procedural justice and both types of cooperation. Specifically, procedural justice promotes cooperation more strongly for those who question the legitimacy of police or the legitimacy of counter-terrorism laws, but the moderation effects differ across the two cooperation contexts. The findings have implications for procedural justice scholarship and for counter-terrorism policing. Originality/value The current paper examines an under-explored aspect of legitimacy; it examines police legitimacy perceptions, but also examines how people view the legitimacy of laws police enforce (i.e. law legitimacy). It is argued that perceptions about law legitimacy can also impact people’s willingness to cooperate with police.

An application of procedural justice to stakeholder perspectives: examining police legitimacy and public trust in police complaints systems

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 779-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Schulenberg ◽  
Allison Chenier ◽  
Sonya Buffone ◽  
Christine Wojciechowski
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Stakeholder Perspectives ◽  
Trust In Police

Encounters between the police and the public: seize the day or practice avoidance?

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-160
Author(s):  
Allegra Clare Schermuly
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Community Interactions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
The Way

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of encounters on police legitimacy and levels of trust in the police in the Monash Local Government Area in the state of Victoria, Australia. Monash was chosen as it had experienced declining results in the official National Survey of Community Satisfaction with Policing in relation to police legitimacy and trust.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study comprising 18 interviews and six focus groups with community representatives from Monash is employed in the paper.FindingsWhen procedural justice approaches are applied during encounters between the police and the public, encounters contribute to securing legitimacy for the police. Contact between the police and the public in everyday situations also enhances trust in the police, depending on the way the police conduct themselves during such interactions.Research limitations/implicationsFindings from a qualitative case study are not able to be widely generalised but the conclusions are still useful for informing insights into processes impacting police legitimacy and trust.Practical implicationsContributes to informing evidence-based police practice around the way police conduct themselves during community interactions; informs policy decisions around allocation of funding for law enforcement with more officers required to carry out community policing; emphasises the importance of prioritising partnerships with communities; demonstrates that positive police/community relations have wider social cohesion implications in a contemporary era of counter-terrorism priorities.Originality/valueThe majority of research in this field to date has been quantitative. A qualitative approach provides fresh insights into the mechanisms of police legitimacy, especially the role of encounters and procedural justice.

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