NCJ Number
235769
Date Published
July 2010
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Based on responses to a survey of 513 teens in Australia, this study examines the role that procedural justice might play in fostering youth support for police.
Abstract
The study found that procedural justice (being treated fairly and equally) had a significant effect on youths' perceptions of police legitimacy (acceptance of and compliance with police authority and actions). Youth who felt police treated them fairly were more likely to view police as legitimate. The findings also indicated that instrumental factors, such as police performance, distributive justice (police distribution of their services equally across all subgroups of the population), and youth-police relations were important; however, the overwhelming factor that predicted youths' views of police legitimacy was procedural justice. Views of police legitimacy mediated the effect of procedural justice on cooperative behaviors. Cooperative behavior was measured as willingness to interact with police and willingness to report crimes to police. This study extends previous research findings with adults to a youth sample. Two public high schools in a medium-sized metropolitan city in Australia were selected and invited to participate in a project focused on youths' perceptions of crime and policing. Participants were asked about their views of police legitimacy, police efficiency in controlling crime, levels of trust of those in authority, feelings of safety, crime in local areas, willingness to help and cooperate with police, and perceptions of police discrimination. This study focused on those survey questions relevant to views of police legitimacy, police performance, police use of procedural justice, police use of distributive justice, youth relationships with police, willingness to cooperate with the police, and willingness to report crime to police. 5 tables and 31 references