Procedural Justice during Police-Citizen Encounters: The Effects of Process-based Policing on Citizen Compliance and Demeanor

Citation

Donner, C.M. (2012), "Procedural Justice during Police-Citizen Encounters: The Effects of Process-based Policing on Citizen Compliance and Demeanor", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 35 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm.2012.18135baa.004

Procedural Justice during Police-Citizen Encounters: The Effects of Process-based Policing on Citizen Compliance and Demeanor

Procedural Justice during Police-Citizen Encounters: The Effects of Process-based Policing on Citizen Compliance and Demeanor

Article Type: Perspectives on policing From: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Volume 35, Issue 2

Mengyan Dai, James Frank and Ivan Sun,Journal of Criminal Justice,Vol. 39, Issue 2,2011,pp. 159-168

This article examined whether procedurally fair behavior by the police has an influence on two types of citizen behavior during encounters with the police: citizen disrespect toward the police and citizen noncompliance with police requests. According to the procedural justice perspective, people’s evaluations of and reactions to legal authorities are shaped by their judgments about the fairness of the procedures used by such authorities. Citizens are more likely to accept the constraints imposed by police if they believe the police use fair procedures in their decision-making. Based primarily on the work of Tom Tyler, procedural justice has facilitated the development of process-based policing. Process-based policing is considered a proactive strategy of regulation in which the police are supposed to follow fair procedures to improve the quality of their decision-making and the quality of their treatment of citizens. When people believe that they are treated in a procedurally fair manner, they are more willing to cooperate with police officers during encounters and defer to their decisions. In the long run, citizens should view the police as a more legitimate institution.

The authors use data from systematic social observations (SSO) of police-citizen encounters to examine procedural justice factors on citizen behavior. SSO is utilized because it captures more detailed information on police-citizen interactions over the entire encounter than other methodologies. The data were part of a larger project that is designed to document and compare the activities of community policing and beat officers employed by the Cincinnati, OH Police Division. Researchers conducted 442 shift observations that yielded information on 2,671 encounters between the police and citizens.

The statistical analyses found limited support for the procedural justice factors. Only two types of procedurally fair behavior by the police, police demeanor and their consideration of citizen voice, were significant in reducing citizen disrespect and noncompliance. Police disrespect, as an indicator of the quality of police interpersonal treatment, increased the likelihood of citizen disrespect. This finding is consistent with the proposition of process-based policing that police disrespect has negative implications for citizens’ social identities and thus provokes disrespect among citizens to protect their offended social identities. Only voice consideration, as an indicator of the quality of police decision-making, was significantly associated with citizen noncompliance. Citizens are less likely to be noncompliant if officers consider their opinions in handling the situation by granting what they request or offering explanations if their requests are not fulfilled. In fact, the likelihood of encountering a noncompliant citizen is reduced by 60 percent when officers take citizens’ opinion into consideration.

The authors suggest the police not only need to be sensitive to peoples’ judgments about the fairness of a procedure but also need to be concerned with understanding what procedures are generally perceived fair and what are the effects of these fair procedures. To encourage citizen respect and compliance during encounters, they recommend that the police show respect towards citizens, involve citizens in their decision-making, and explain their decisions to citizens. If a citizen believes that a police decision is fair, he/she is more likely to accept that decision even if the decision has a negative consequence for the citizen attached to it (e.g. arrest).

Christopher M. DonnerUniversity of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA