Social identity and procedural justice in police encounters with the public: results from a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

The role of social identity in shaping citizen views of police is central to the group-value model (GVM). The GVM suggests that the relationship between public perceptions of fair treatment and views of police legitimacy will be tempered by social identity. Our paper employs a randomised field trial of procedural justice dialogue – the Queensland Community Engagement Trial – to test the role of social identity in the GVM. Under randomised field trial conditions we find that social identity is connected to perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy, but that it does not moderate the effect of procedural justice on legitimacy. We discuss the implications of this finding, concluding that when police use procedurally just dialogue in encounters with the public, they can enhance perceptions of police, regardless of social identification.