An Empirical Test of Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and Public Cooperation with the Police in China

Abstract

Grounded in the pathbreaking work of Tom Tyler and his colleagues, procedural justice and legitimacy have been widely tested in different fields in Western societies. Although a small body of research provides some evidence supporting the process-based model of policing in China, studies testing the theory of procedural justice using a larger representative sample are lacking. Drawing upon survey data collected by the Chinese General Social Survey in 2017, this study assesses the applicability of Tyler’s work in a non-democratic setting—China—and finds that the Western wisdom of process-based policing is largely supported. Procedural justice, as the strongest factor, plays a crucial role in influencing Chinese people’s feelings of obligation to obey and willingness to cooperate with the police. Police effectiveness also promotes police legitimacy and cooperation. This study highlights the implications of procedural justice and police legitimacy in a different cultural context.