Justin Nix
Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska, Omaha
Key Findings
- The effect of procedural justice on police legitimacy is relatively stable.
- 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.
Description
In the article, “Is the Effect of Procedural Justice on Police Legitimacy Invariant? Testing the Generality of Procedural Justice and Competing Antecedents of Legitimacy,” Nix and his co-authors test the effect of procedural justice on police legitimacy in different situations using Tyler’s process-based model of policing, a theory that social-psychological benefits of procedural justice impact evaluations of trust in police. The researchers collected their data by surveying a random sample of participants from various backgrounds, neighborhoods, and socioeconomic status via mail, totaling 1681 individuals. The results showed that the effect of procedural justice on police legitimacy is relatively stable. The data revealed that 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. The authors conclude that police can increase their legitimacy by ensuring fairness in their interactions with citizens.