Explaining Police Procedural Justice in a Democracy: An Expanded Internal-External Model

Abstract

Since procedural justice was proposed, this vein of research has gained much popularity in scholarship, empirical supports, and theoretical advancement. Yet, research on the procedural fairness within police organizations, particularly on the underlying and mediating mechanisms between internal and external procedural justice, remains understudied. Relying on survey data collected from Taiwanese police officers, this study expands the current literature by testing the direct relationships between supervisor, organizational, and social supports and external procedural justice and their indirect connections through supervisor trustworthiness and self-legitimacy. Supervisor and social supports were found to directly boost officers’ commitment to external procedural justice. Perceived organizational support promotes external procedural justice through cultivating officer self-legitimacy. This study concludes by discussing cross-border research and pragmatic implications for police training and management.

Does citizen opinion matter? An analysis of police officers’ support for democratic policing in South Korea

“…Bottoms and Tankebe (2012) argued that the discussion about police legitimacy should be rooted in the dialogue process between power holders and citizens subject to power. Democratization is never a non-reversible process (Cao et al, 2016), it is a learning process involving both power holders and citizens subject to power; citizens learn to express different political opinions in a justifiable manner and authorities learn to respect the boundary of power authorized by law (Wang et al, 2023). Within the dialogic framework, legitimacy is constantly in flux; it is a significant test for power holders when it becomes clear that a relevant audience has rejected one or more aspects of their initial claim to legitimacy (Bottoms and Tankebe, 2012)…”

“…Self-legitimacy is considered an essential value for affirmative policing such as democratic policing (Bradford and Quinton, 2014). Officers' perceived self-legitimacy plays a key role in connecting the social context of policing, both the working environment and social supports, to external procedural justice for citizens (Bradford and Quinton, 2014;Tankebe, 2019;Wang et al, 2023). Chen et al (2021) assessed whether internal procedural justice is directly and indirectly connected to external procedural justice mediated by self-legitimacy among Taiwanese police officers.…”

Linking police and citizen data: a multilevel analysis on the effects of organizational effectiveness and fairness on procedural justice

“…For another example, being treated fairly by supervisors can also increase moral alignment (Sun et al. , 2019) and trust in supervisor (Kevin Wang et al. , 2024) that officers have with their supervisors and citizens, leading to officers’ improved responsiveness to and fair treatment of citizens.…”

“…internal procedural justice) and officers’ procedural justice on the street (i.e. external procedural justice) by using police self-report data (Kutnjak Ivković, 2020; Van Craen and Skogan, 2017; Kevin Wang et al. , 2024; Wu et al.…”

“…Moreover, organizational fairness, such as supervisory justice or support can directly and/or indirectly transmit to officer’s willingness to deliver procedurally just treatment to the public (e.g. Kutnjak Ivković, 2020; Kevin Wang et al. , 2024).…”