Procedural Justice and Demographic Diversity: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Police Recruitment

Abstract

Online recruitment materials are often the first encounter for individuals considering a police career. Procedural justice (PJ) theory argues that how police officers treat the public is an important predictor for future citizen cooperation. Taking steps towards becoming a police officer is a unique form of organizational cooperation. This project examined job interest for a sample of 993 respondents in Amazon’s mTurk, experimentally manipulating whether the presented recruitment materials emphasized PJ policing or not (PJ content) in a quasi-experimental vignette design. The PJ content significantly increased two of the four job interest outcomes. PJ theory also argues fair and respectful treatment should impact all groups similarly, deemed the invariance thesis. The results largely showed groups being influenced in similar ways. This study’s findings largely support this extension of PJ theory, and are useful to practitioners interested in building their recruitment pool through economical changes in recruitment materials.