Areas of Expertise

• Police legitimacy
• Procedural justice
• Police use of force

Key Findings

• Officers who felt less motivated due to negative publicity expressed less self-legitimacy. MORE
• The perception of danger in a police officer’s job was not significantly impacted by negative publicity. MORE
• The effect of procedural justice on police legitimacy is relatively stable. MORE
• Procedural justice has a much larger effect on trust in law enforcement for individuals who have been victimized in the past or have a fear of crime in their neighborhood. MORE
• Officers believe that residents of high crime areas who perceive greater fairness from the police are more trusting of the police. MORE
• Officers believe that residents of low and high crime areas feel obligated to obey police when they are fair in exercising their power during citizen/police interactions. MORE

Biography

Justin Nix, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is an expert in policing, police legitimacy, and procedural fairness.

Nix has consulted with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, National Center for Border Security and Immigration and was a research assistant for the Integrated Data Exchange and Analysis Project by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Smart Policing Initiative. He is a member of the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the Southern Criminal Justice Association.

He has been published in various academic journals, including Law and Human Behavior, Justice Quarterly, and Journal of Quantitative Criminology.

Nix received his Ph.D., M.A. and B.S. in Criminology & Criminal Justice from the University of South Carolina.

Follow Justin on Twitter: @jnixy