The effects of procedural injustice on the use of violence against police by Occupy Wall Street protesters

Abstract

While a large, cross-disciplinary literature exists on crowd dynamics and protester behavior, few studies have tested the effects of perceived injustice on protester behavior. Based on data from a survey of Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York City, we explore the influence of perceptions of unjust police behavior on the use of violent resistance by protesters. We test the direct effects of two perceptual measures of procedural injustice and four control variables on self-reported use of violence against police. We also test the indirect effects of these variables on protester use of violence through an attitudinal measure of support for the use of violence against police. Findings reveal that the dominant predictor of protester violence against police is the perception that police use force unjustly against protesters. Level of participation in OWS and attitudes toward violence also exert significant effects on self-reported use of violence against police among protesters.