Procedural Justice Theory Research Articles

Governing sex workers through trust: Evaluating policing practices for sex workers’ safety through a procedural justice lens

ABSTRACTDrawing on qualitative fieldwork with differen key actors in Geneva, Switzerland, I apply procedural justice theory to the governance of prostitution. My findings show that the vice squad is ill-equipped to protect sex workers from violence and exploitation because their everyday practices during interactions with sex workers, aimed at creating trust, rely on affect alone. Conversely, the community RLD unit utilizes both fair treatment and a transparent decision-making process which successfully creates trust relationships with sex workers, increasing their willingness to report incidents of violence and exploitation. This has important implications for prostitution policy aimed at improving sex workers’ safety.

Procedural justice, obligation to obey, and cooperation with police in a sample of Jamaican citizens

ABSTRACT Procedural justice theory plays a central role in understanding police–citizen relationships. To test the universality of procedural justice theory, researchers have tended to assess the relative impacts of normative and instrumental models of policing in different geopolitical contexts. Building on Reisig and Lloyd’s study in Jamaica, we test in the current study the relative impacts of procedural justice (a normative factor) and police effectiveness and risk of sanctioning (instrumental factors) on Jamaicans’ obligation to obey the police and willingness to cooperate with police. We found that procedural justice predicted both obligation to obey and cooperation, although obligation did not predict cooperation. And while effectiveness predicted obligation, it was not significantly related to cooperation. Lastly, older citizens were more willing to cooperate with police. The study’s implications for policy and future research are discussed.

The Effects of Procedural Justice on Cooperation and Compliance among Inmates in a Work Release Program

Order is critical to the safe and efficient management of correctional institutions. Procedural justice theory suggests that the fair and rightful exercise of authority by correctional staff can promote order by stimulating within inmates a sense of obligation to obey authority. Triggering this sense of obligation is thought to encourage voluntary cooperation and compliance without relying on formal sanctions. Using data from a 2006 survey of 213 adult male inmates in a Chicago transition facility (a minimum security prison), we test the effects of procedural justice and other factors on cooperation and compliance. The results reveal that inmates’ perceptions of procedural justice have a mix of direct and indirect effects on their cooperation and compliance. Our findings clarify the role of procedural justice and other factors in maintaining order within correctional settings. Supplementary analyses clarify the effects of anger on cooperation and compliance and provide fruitful avenues for future research.

Attorney–Client Communication in Public Defense: A Qualitative Examination

This article presents a qualitative research approach to exploring attorney–client communication in an urban public defense system. The study drew upon procedural justice theory (PJT), which emphasizes relationships between satisfaction with system procedures and compliance with system demands. Interpretive analysis of interview data from 22 public defense clients revealed four major themes. PJT accounted well for three themes of communication time, type, and content, highlighting relationships between prompt, iterative, complete communication, and client satisfaction. The fourth theme involved clients exercising agency, often due to dissatisfaction with attorney communication. This theme was better accommodated by legal consciousness theory, which emphasizes that diverse experiences with law include manipulation and opposition alongside compliance. Implications for policy and research are discussed.

Perceived police fairness: exploring the determinants of citizens’ perceptions of procedural fairness in Ghana

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting citizens’ perceptions of police procedural fairness. More specifically, using data systematically collected from two large metropolitan areas in Ghana, the current study examines the independent contributions of three categories of factors – demographic factors, attitudinal factors, and experiential factors – on perceptions of fairness. An ordinal regression analysis conducted to assess the predictive effects of these variables indicates that citizens’ assessments of police fairness are largely driven by their experiences with the police, views about police effectiveness, levels of trust in the police, and their own individual characteristics. These observations are noteworthy, and provide a platform for future research, policy formation, and continued debate about the utility of the procedural justice theory in policing.

The role of procedural justice for global strategy and subsidiary initiatives

Abstract Research SummaryThe global strategy literature highlights the role of headquarters (HQ) in realizing global integration benefits while enabling independent subsidiary strategic initiatives. We construct a game‐theoretic model of the interaction between HQ and subsidiaries, and, building on procedural justice theory, we analyze the motivational costs that can result from the anticipation or realization of HQ intervention in subsidiary initiatives. We also analyze the implications for MNC‐level value creation when HQ managers, fearing subsidiary managers’ emotion‐based reactions, refrain from intervening. We derive a number of counter‐intuitive results, for example, that good HQ behavior may involve forgoing opportunities for value creation, and that procedural justice systems may sometimes be counterproductive. Managerial SummaryHeadquarters (HQ) in multinational corporations are required to balance global integration and local autonomy within the organization. This balancing act sometimes requires HQ to intervene in subsidiary matters and to overrule the subunits’ decisions. While an intervention might create integration advantages, it may also have a negative impact on the motivation of subsidiary managers, who might feel that their effort and their decisions are overruled. We focus on such motivational issues and investigate how fair decision‐making processes applied by the HQ influence subsidiaries’ entrepreneurial behavior and their reactions to the overruling. Our findings show that, under specific conditions, HQ need to forgo value‐creating interventions, and that a strong focus on a procedural justice culture within the firm can be detrimental.

Turning the corner on procedural justice theory: exploring reverse causality with an experimental vignette in a longitudinal survey

Traditional police procedural justice theory argues that citizen perceptions of fair treatment by police officers increase police legitimacy, which leads to an increased likelihood of legal compliance. Recently, Nagin and Telep (2017) criticized these causal assumptions, arguing that prior literature has not definitively ruled out reverse causality—that is, legitimacy influences perceptions of fairness and/or compliance influences perceptions of both fairness and legitimacy. The goal of the present paper was to explore this critique using experimental and correlational methodologies within a longitudinal framework. Adolescents completed a vignette-based experiment that manipulated two aspects of officer behavior linked to perceptions of fairness: voice and impartiality. After reading the vignette, participants rated the fairness and legitimacy of the officer within the situation. At three time points prior to the experiment (1, 17, and 31 months), participants completed surveys measuring their global perceptions of police legitimacy and self-reported delinquency. Data were analyzed to assess the extent to which global legitimacy and delinquency predicted responses to the vignette net of experimental manipulations and controls. Both experimental manipulations led to higher perceptions of situational procedural justice and officer legitimacy. Prior perceptions of police legitimacy did not predict judgments of situational procedural justice; however, in some cases, prior engagement in delinquency was negatively related to situational procedural justice. Prior perceptions of legitimacy were positively associated with situational perceptions of legitimacy regardless of experimental manipulations. This study showed mixed support for the case of reverse causality among police procedural justice, legitimacy, and compliance.

The Strain From Procedural Injustice on Parolees: Bridging Procedural Justice Theory and General Strain Theory

The procedural justice literature explains why people obey the law. However, prior research has largely neglected the implication of procedural justice in the correctional context in general and in parole efficacy in particular. In an attempt to bridge the propositions of procedural justice and general strain theory, this study assesses the effect of parolees’ perceived procedural injustice on their success in reentry. Using data from a longitudinal study of prisoner reentry, we investigate the nexus of procedural injustice, negative emotions, family bonds, and postrelease criminal propensity. Findings indicate that procedural injustice increases criminal propensity, and the negative emotion of depression partially mediates this relationship. We also find parolees’ family bonds totally mediate the effect of procedural injustice on criminal propensity.

Towards a Theory of Pure Procedural Climate Justice

AbstractA challenge for the theorising of climate justice is that even when the agents whose actions are supposed to be regulated are cooperative and act in good faith, they may still disagree about how the burdens and benefits of dealing with climate change should be distributed. This article is a contribution to the formulation of a useful role for normative theorising in light of this bounded nature of climate justice. We outline a theory of pure procedural climate justice; its content, function in relation to international climate diplomacy, and justification. The theory is ‘pure' in the sense that it does not rely on an independent criterion of what are just outcomes in negotiations of climate responsibilities. Rather, it specifies procedural fairness norms, such as transparency, reciprocity and participation, which make the process of negotiation fair independently of which account of substantive climate justice happens to be correct. Such procedural fairness norms are justified in part by being expressions of an ideal of a reasonable negotiator, an ideal which itself commands respect. They are also justified as means to an effective coordinated response to dangerous climate change in virtue of their capacity to create trust, predictability and accountability.

The Inspiration of the Eighteenth Camel: A Case Study on the Participation of Third-Party Organizations in Community Governance

Under the background of the continued refinement and efficiency of social division of labor, the governance body of social is becoming more and more diversified. In China’s grass root government, the importance of third-party organizations is clear, and how to play its role well is an urgent problem. This paper proposed “facilitation”, a new concept of mediation, as an attempt to optimize the participation of third-party organizations in governance. A case study with contradiction of neighborhoods was solved in which a team of facilitators participated in. this paper also uses empowerment theory, procedural justice theory and other related theories to analyze the event and to summarize this innovative concept’s advantages and shortcomings. At last, the author attempts to put forward some suggestions for the application of the concept of facilitation and gives some recommendations to further research.

The Role of Procedural Justice for Global Strategy and Subsidiary Initiatives

The global strategy literature highlights the role of headquarters (HQ) in realizing global integration benefits while enabling independent subsidiary strategic initiatives. We construct a game-theoretic model of the interaction between HQ and subsidiaries, and, building on procedural justice theory, we analyze the motivational costs that can result from the anticipation or realization of HQ intervention in subsidiary initiatives. We also analyze the implications for MNC-level value creation when HQ managers, fearing subsidiary managers’ emotion-based reactions, refrain from intervening. We derive a number of counter-intuitive results, for example, that good HQ behavior may involve forgoing opportunities for value creation, and that procedural justice systems may sometimes be counterproductive.

Turning the Corner on Procedural Justice Theory: Exploring Reverse Causality with an Experimental Vignette in a Longitudinal Survey

Objectives: Traditional police procedural justice theory argues that citizen perceptions of fair treatment by police officers increases police legitimacy, which leads to an increased likelihood of legal compliance. Recently, Nagin and Telep (2017) criticized these causal assumptions, arguing that prior literature has not definitively ruled out reverse causality — i.e., that legitimacy influences perceptions of fairness and/or compliance influences perceptions of both fairness and legitimacy. The goal of the present paper was to explore this critique using experimental and correlational methodology within a longitudinal framework. Methods: Adolescents completed a vignette-based experiment that manipulated two aspects of officer behavior linked to perceptions of fairness: voice and impartiality. After reading the vignette, participants rated the fairness and legitimacy of the officer within the situation. At three time points prior to the experiment (1, 17, and 31 months) participants completed surveys measuring their global perceptions of police legitimacy and self-reported delinquency. Data were analyzed to assess the extent to which global legitimacy and delinquency predicted responses to the vignette, net of experimental manipulations and controls. Results: Both experimental manipulations led to higher perceptions of situational procedural justice and officer legitimacy. Prior perceptions of police legitimacy did not predict judgments of situational procedural justice; however, in some cases prior engagement in delinquency was negatively related to situational procedural justice. Prior perceptions of legitimacy were positively associated with situational perceptions of legitimacy regardless of experimental manipulations. Conclusions: This study showed mixed support for the case of reverse causality among police procedural justice, legitimacy, and compliance.

“He did that because I was Black”: Black College Students Perceive Municipal Police, Not Campus Police, as Discriminating

ABSTRACTThis article examines qualitative data obtained from 66 Black college students about perceptions of their interactions with municipal police (MP) and campus police (CP). Participants described MP and CP as acting severely, but only attributed racial bias to MP. These findings are explored with respect to theories of procedural justice and legitimacy. They help to explain why participants viewed MP’s actions as racially biased, though it is less clear why CP’s actions were not perceived as such.

Tracking Procedural Justice in Stop and Search Encounters: Coding Evidence from Body-Worn Video Cameras

Research QuestionTo what extent do police stop-and-search practices, as captured on officers’ body-worn video cameras, adhere to key dimensions of procedural justice theory, and do levels of adherence vary across the dimensions of (1) citizen participation and voice, (2) neutrality and explanation, (3) respect and dignity and (4) trustworthy motives?DataA random sample of 100 recorded stop-and-search encounters was selected from all 601 encounters recorded by Greater Manchester Police between 1st January and 31st August 2017, with an average duration of 12 minutes of combined video and audio with transcripts.MethodsThese records were coded entirely by the first author for the four main dimensions of procedural justice and details about the actors/participants involved. The dimensions were combined into an overall index score of procedural justice for each encounter.FindingsMost stop-and-searches were characterised by a strong element of police allowing citizens to express voice, followed by police demonstrating respect and offering explanation. The lowest scores were given to “conveying trustworthy motives”. A standardised metric of each element into a measure of 0–100 coded mean scores for participation/voice = 94, explanation/neutrality = 65, respect = 71 and trustworthy motives = 47. In this latter category, not one officer linked the purpose of the stop and search to the wider organisational purpose of protecting society and helping to keep people safe.ConclusionsThis evidence suggests the potential value of an ongoing tracking measure for police legitimacy which could be used as a supervisory and human development tool for operational officers, comparing individuals, units, areas and trends over time in objectively coded features of police behaviour towards citizens.

The Generalizability of Police Legitimacy: Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and Speeding Intention of South Korean Drivers

Empirical support for procedural justice theory in criminology is robust in the developed Western countries, whereas the results are mixed for non-Western or less-developed countries. Some scholars (e.g., Reisig et al. Journal of Criminal Justice and Security, 14(2), 147–164, 2012) argue that the generalizability of procedural justice theory may be limited to particular sociological settings, such as democratic and industrialized societies. The current study aims to review the international generalizability of the theory and to test the theory utilizing a South Korean driver sample. The results show that procedural fairness predicted legitimacy and speeding intention. However, perceived legitimacy does not mediate the association between perceived procedural fairness and speeding intention for Korean drivers. Considering the findings from the current study and previous studies, it seems that industrialization may not be a sufficient condition linking perceived legitimacy and compliance, but democracy may be the most significant precursor for the theory to work.

Applicant perceptions of new selection systems are a function of their performance in the selection procedure

IntroductionScreening practices for selecting surgery trainees have been criticized for subjectivity, inefficiency, and inability to predict performance. This study explored applicant perceptions to an untraditional selection process. MethodsFellowship applicants completed an online assessment containing 26 situational judgment test (SJT) items and a 108-item personality profile. High-performing candidates participated in on-site structured interviews and skills testing. Upon completion of all interviews, but before match results were available, an anonymous, online survey was sent to all applicants. The survey asked about perceptions of the selection system along dimensions of procedural justice theory on a 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) scale. ResultsTwenty-one of 51 applicants completed the survey. Those invited for an interview (N = 12) had more favorable perceptions about communication (3.50 ± 1.38 versus 2.00 ± 0.82,p < 0.05), opportunity to perform (3.33 ± 1.56 versus 1.29 ± 0.49,p < 0.01), fairness (4.50 ± 0.80 versus 3.43 ± 1.40,p < 0.05) and gaining more insight (4.25 ± 1.22 versus 2.29 ± 1.60,p < 0.01) compared to applicants not invited. Content (4.21 ± 0.86) and consistency (4.79 ± 0.42) means were similar. ConclusionsThese results suggest that applicant perceptions are directly related to how well they perform in the selection procedure.

La constitution dialogique de la subjectivite: retour sur la relecture par Tugendhat de l’interactionisme americain

The Rawls theory of procedural justice is being subjected to criticism oh theoretical approaches named “Theory of recognition” (A. Honneth, A. Caille, Ch. Lazzeri) emphasing the importance of subjective interactions in the development of the meaningful representation as used by the society to be included as part of its existence. This article intends to show how, by a critical recovery of American interactionism and lessons provided by this school of social psychology. Ernst Tugendhadt shows, on a philosophical level, the importance of the individual enrolment in a dialogical space where are making up the meaning of language used, the standard of right and good, and the notion of truth.

Social Control in Schools: The Relationships between School Security Measures and Informal Social Control Mechanisms

ABSTRACTSocial control and procedural justice theories indicate that informal social control reduces problem behaviors. However, many schools have implemented formal control mechanisms such as school security measures. This study examines the association between school security measures (security personnel, metal detectors, and surveillance cameras) and students’ perceptions of informal social control (relationships with teachers, other school adults, and the fairness and consistency of school rules). We used structural equation modeling to examine these relationships in a nationally representative sample of 6,547 secondary students surveyed as part of the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (M age = 14.94; 51% male, 60% White non-Hispanic, 14% Black non-Hispanic, 20% Hispanic). The results indicated that the presence of security personnel in schools was associated with poorer student relationships with teachers. Findings for the other school security measures were nonsignificant or inconsistent across models. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Dual-process theory of racial isolation, legal cynicism, and reported crime

Why is neighborhood racial composition linked so strongly to police-reported crime? Common explanations include over-policing and negative interactions with police, but police reports of crime are heavily dependent on resident 911 calls. Using Sampson's concept of legal cynicism and Vaisey's dual-process theory, we theorize that racial concentration and isolation consciously and nonconsciously influence neighborhood variation in 911 calls for protection and prevention. The data we analyze are consistent with this thesis. Independent of police reports of crime, we find that neighborhood racial segregation in 1990 and the legal cynicism about crime prevention and protection it engenders have lasting effects on 911 calls more than a decade later, in 2006-2008. Our theory explains this persistent predictive influence through continuity and change in intervening factors. A source of cumulative continuity, the intensification of neighborhood racial concentration and isolation between 1990 and 2000, predicts 911 calls. Likewise, sources of change-heightened neighborhood incarceration and home foreclosures during the financial crisis in 2006-2008-also predict these calls. Our findings are consistent with legal cynicism theory's focus on neighborhood disadvantage, racial isolation, and concerns about police protection and crime prevention; they correspond less with the emphasis of procedural justice theory on police legitimacy.

The social psychological processes of ‘procedural justice’: Concepts, critiques and opportunities

Contemporary research on policing and procedural justice theory (PJT) emphasizes large-scale survey data to link a series of interlocking concepts, namely perceptions of procedural fairness, police legitimacy and normative compliance. In this article we contend that as such, contemporary research is in danger of conveying a misreading of PJT by portraying a reified social world divorced from the social psychological dynamics of encounters between the police and policed. In this article we set out a rationale for addressing this potential misreading and explore how and why PJT researchers would benefit both theoretically and methodologically through drawing upon advances in theoretical accounts of social identity, developed most notably in attempts to understand crowd action. Specifically, we advance an articulation of a ‘process-based’ model of PJT’s underlying social and subjective dynamics and stress the value of ethnographic approaches for studying police–‘citizen’ encounters.