Does Procedural Justice Moderate the Effect of Collective Efficacy on Police Legitimacy?

• NCJ Number: 309685
• Journal: American Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 49 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2024 Pages: 590-613
• Author(s): Yongjae Nam; Chris Melde
• Date Published: August 2024
• Length: 24 pages
• Agencies: BJS-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

This article reports on an examination of city-level victimization surveys to determine perceptions of neighborhood social dynamics and opinions that the police follow fair procedures, and how those views correlate with residents’ views of police legitimacy; it describes the research methodology and findings, suggesting that the perception that police treat people fairly minimizes the impacts of low collective efficacy beliefs on evaluations of police legitimacy.

Abstract

Research suggests perceptions of neighborhood social dynamics and judgments that the police follow fair procedures are strongly correlated with residents’ views of police legitimacy. The nature of these relationships is less clear, including the extent to which the association between informal neighborhood dynamics and police legitimacy is influenced by perceptions of police practice. The authors examined whether perceptions of procedural justice moderate the effect of collective efficacy beliefs on police legitimacy evaluations. Utilizing data from three city-level victimization surveys (N = 2,837), they found that the influence of collective efficacy beliefs on police legitimacy evaluations was moderated by judgments that the police follow fair procedures. When perceptions of procedural justice are at their mean or higher, collective efficacy beliefs are unassociated with police legitimacy. Conversely, collective efficacy beliefs have a stronger impact on legitimacy evaluations when procedural justice is low. Results suggest perceptions that police treat people fairly minimize the impact of low collective efficacy beliefs on police legitimacy evaluations. (Published Abstract Provided)