Hostname: page-component-669899f699-rg895 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-24T23:16:28.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Procedural Justice and Legitimacy in Shaping Public Support for Policing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Jason Sunshine  and
Tom R. Tyler
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study explores two issues about police legitimacy. The first issue is the relative importance of police legitimacy in shaping public support of the police and policing activities, compared to the importance of instrumental judgments about (1) the risk that people will be caught and sanctioned for wrongdoing, (2) the performance of the police in fighting crime, and/or (3) the fairness of the distribution of police services. Three aspects of public support for the police are examined: public compliance with the law, public cooperation with the police, and public willingness to support policies that empower the police. The second issue is which judgments about police activity determine people's views about the legitimacy of the police. This study compares the influence of people's judgments about the procedural justice of the manner in which the police exercise their authority to the influence of three instrumental judgments: risk, performance, and distributive fairness. Findings of two surveys of New Yorkers show that, first, legitimacy has a strong influence on the public's reactions to the police, and second, the key antecedent of legitimacy is the fairness of the procedures used by the police. This model applies to both white and minority group residents.

Type
Articles of General Interest
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , September 2003 , pp. 513 - 547
Copyright
© 2003 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Axelrod, Robert (1984) The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic.Google Scholar
Beetham, David (1991) The Legitimation of Power. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanites Press International, Inc.10.1007/978-1-349-21599-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumstein, Albert, & Wallman, Joel, eds. (2000) The Crime Drop in America. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John (1989) Crime, Shame, and Reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.10.1017/CBO9780511804618CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brodeur, Jean-Paul (1998) How to Recognize Good Policing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Casper, Jonathan D., Tyler, Tom R., & Fisher, Bonnie (1988) “Procedural Justice in Felony Cases,” 22 Law & Society Rev. 483–507.10.2307/3053626CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, Jack, & Muste, Christopher (1999) “Trust in Government,” in Robinson, J. P., Shaver, P. R., & Wrightsman, L. S., eds., Measures of Political Attitudes. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cole, David (1999) No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Deutsch, Morton (1990) “Psychological Roots of Moral Exclusion,” 46 J. of Social Issues 21–6.10.1111/j.1540-4560.1990.tb00269.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Robert R. (1992) Community Policing: Comparative Perspectives and Prospects. New York: St. Martin's Press.10.1007/978-1-137-07200-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gest, Ted (2000) Crime and Politics: Big Government's Erratic Campaign for Law and Order. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Harcourt, Bernard E. (2001) The Illusion of Order: The False Promise of Broken Windows Policing. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Huang, Wilson S., & Vaughn, Michael S. (1996) “Support and Confidence: Public Attitudes Toward the Police,” in Flanagan, T. & Longmire, D., eds., Americans View Crime and Justice: A National Public Opinion Survey. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Joreskog, Karl G., & Sorbom, Dag (1986) LISREL: Analysis of Linear Structural Relationships by the Method of Maximum Likelihood. Uppsala, Sweden: University of Uppsala, Department of Statistics.Google Scholar
Kelling, George L., & Coles, Catherine M. (1996) Fixing Broken Windows. New York: Touchstone.Google Scholar
Kelling, George L., & Moore, Mark K. (1988) “The Evolving Strategy of Policing. Perspectives on Policing,” No. 4, 1–15. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.Google Scholar
Kelman, Herbert C., & Hamilton, V. Lee (1989) Crimes of Obedience. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Lawler, Edward J., Ford, Rebecca, & Blegen, Mary (1988) “Coercive Capability in Conflict: A Test of Bilateral Versus Conflict Spiral Theory,” 51 Social Psychology Q. 93–107.10.2307/2786833CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McArdle, Andrea, & Erzen, Tanya T. (2001) Zero Tolerance: Quality of Life and the New Police Brutality in New York City. New York: New York Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Moore, Mark H. (1992) “Problem-Solving and Community Policing,” in Tonry, M. & Morris, N., eds., Modern Policing: Crime and Justice, A Review of Research, Vol. 15. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Nagata, Donna K. (1993) Legacy of Injustice. New York: Plenum.10.1007/978-1-4899-1118-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
New York City Police Department (2001) “New York City Police Department Citywide Stop and Frisk Data, 1998, 1999, and 2000.” http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/pap/stopandfrisk_0501.pdf.Google Scholar
Pruitt, Dean (1981) Negotiation Behavior. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Pruitt, Dean, & Rubin, Jeff Z. (1986) Social Conflict: Escalation, Stalemate, and Settlement. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Pruitt, Dean, Peirce, Robert S., McGillicuddy, Neil B., Welton, Gary L., & Castrianno, Lynn M. (1993) “Long-Term Success in Mediation,” 17 Law and Human Behavior 313–30.10.1007/BF01044511CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reiss, Albert J. Jr. (1992) “Police Organization in the Twentieth Century,” in Tonry, M. & Morris, N., eds., Modern Policing: Crime and Justice, A Review of Research, Vol. 15. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J., Raudenbush, Stephen W., & Earls, Felton (1997) “Neighborhoods and Violent Crime,” 277 Science 918–24. pmid/925231610.1126/science.277.5328.918CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarat, Austin (1977) “Studying American Legal Culture,” 11 Law & Society Rev. 427–88.10.2307/3053128CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence W. (1993) “Defiance, Deterrence, and Irrelevance: A Theory of the Criminal Sanction,” 30 J. of Research in Crime and Delinquency 445–73.10.1177/0022427893030004006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverman, Eli B. (1999) NYPD Battles Crime: Innovative Strategies in Policing. Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Skogan, Wesley G. (1990) Disorder and Decline. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Skogan, Wesley G., & Hartnett, Susan M. (1997) Community Policing, Chicago Style. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Skogan, Wesley G., Hartnett, Susan M., DuBois, Jill, Comey, Jennifer T., Kaiser, Marianne, & Lovig, Justine H. (1999) On the Beat: Police and Community Problem Solving. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Skolnick, Jerome, & Fyfe, James (1993) Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Sparks, J. Richard, Bottoms, Anthony, & Hay, Will (1996) Prisons and the Problem of Order. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198258186.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, John L., Piereson, James E., & Marcus, Gregory E. (1982) Political Tolerance and American Democracy. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Peggy S., Dunham, Roger G., & Alpert, Geoffrey P. (1987) “Attitude Structures of Different Ethnic and Age Groups Concerning Police,” 78 J. of Criminal Law and Criminology 177–96.10.2307/1143579CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1990) Why People Obey the Law. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (2001a) “Trust and Law Abidingness: A Proactive Model of Social Regulation,” 81 Boston University Law Rev. 361–406.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (2001b) “Public Trust and Confidence in Legal Authorities: What Do Majority and Minority Group Members Want from the Law and Legal Institutions?,” 19 Behavioral Sciences and the Law 215–35. pmid/1138569910.1002/bsl.438CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyler, Tom R., & Blader, Steven L. (2000) Cooperation in Groups. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Huo, Yuen J. (2002) Trust in the Law: Encouraging Public Cooperation With the Police and Courts. New York: Russell-Sage.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Lind, E. Allan (1992) “A Relational Model of Authority in groups,” 25 Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 115–91.10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60283-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., Boeckmann, Robert J., Smith, Heather J., & Huo, Yuen J. (1997) Social Justice in a Diverse Society. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max (1968) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, G. Roth & C. Wittich, eds. New York: Bedminster Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, James Q., & Petersilia, Joan (2002) Crime: Public Policies for Crime Control. Oakland, CA: Institute for Contemporary Studies.Google Scholar
Worden, Robert E. (1995) “The ‘Causes’ of Police Brutality: Theory and Evidence on Police Use of Force,” in Geller, W. A., & Toch, H., eds., And Justice for All: Understanding and Controlling Police Abuse of Force. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum.Google Scholar