Is dissatisfaction with police inevitable? Testing an integrated model of motivational postures and procedural justice in police-citizen contacts

Abstract

We examine citizen satisfaction with police-citizen encounters. More specifically, we consider whether pre-existing defiant postures shape citizens' perceptions of the procedural justice of the encounter, and their general satisfaction with the encounter. Utilizing longitudinal survey data collected from 1,190 citizens, we examine 440 people who reported having personal contact with police in the 12-month period preceding the second survey. We find both resistant and disengaged forms of defiance at Time 1 result in lower perceptions of procedural justice and satisfaction during the police-citizen encounter at Time 2. Importantly, procedural justice fully mediates the relationship between defiance and satisfaction with police. These findings suggest that how citizens view police coming into a police-citizen encounter can impact their perceptions of procedural justice and, in turn, their satisfaction with the encounter. Testing a model of citizen defiance during police-citizen contacts is important because it helps us to better understand the way in which preconceived understandings of the police contribute to citizen interpretations of police-citizen encounters. The implication is that citizens who are actively resistant or disengaged during police-citizen encounters may also influence the way police subsequently interact with them.

Are trustworthiness and legitimacy ‘hard to win, easy to lose’? A longitudinal test of the asymmetry thesis of police-citizen contact

“…Skogan (2012) says that people bring 'priors' to bear when they experience contact with the police which "could independently color how they view specific features of an encounter'' (p. 276 -see also Jackson and Pósch 2019;Rosenbaum et al 2005;Sargeant et al 2018). Although controlling for prior levels of trustworthiness and legitimacy, results displayed in Figs.…”

“…respondents with no contact with police, so they did not test the asymmetry thesis because they could not compare positive and negative encounters with no contact (Bradford et al, 2014;Gau, 2010;Rosenbaum et al, 2005;Sargeant et al, 2018;Tyler and Fagan, 2008); and (b) those that included all respondents in the analysis, thus providing some basis for the assessment of the asymmetry thesis, but did not model change in public opinion (Slocum et al , 2016;Slocum and Wiley, 2018;Tyler and Fagan, 2008).…”

“…Additionally, we draw on Skogan's (2012) discussion that people might bring 'priors' that could influence how they perceive an encounter-i.e. if people perceive the quality of police behavior during an encounter differently (Sargeant et al, 2018), then the impact of police-citizen encounters could be different for people with different prior attitudes towards the police. Based on procedural justice theory, we would expect that the impact of perceived quality of police behavior during encounters on changes in public opinion would be the same regardless of one's prior levels of perceived police trustworthiness and legitimacy.…”

Are Trustworthiness and Legitimacy ‘Hard to Win, Easy to Lose’? A Longitudinal Test of the Asymmetry Thesis of Police-Citizen Contact

“…There are two groups of panel studies that focused on the relationship between perceived police behavior and public opinion about legal institutions 7 : (a) those that model change in public opinion but exclude from the analysis respondents with no contact with police, so they did not test the asymmetry thesis because they could not compare positive and negative encounters with no contact (Bradford et al 2014;Gau 2010;Rosenbaum et al 2005;Sargeant et al 2018;Tyler 2017;Tyler and Fagan 2008); and (b) those that included all respondents in the analysis, thus providing some basis for the assessment of the asymmetry thesis, but did not model change in opinion (Slocum et al 2016;Slocum and Wiley 2018;Tyler and Fagan 2008).…”

Procedural justice and legal compliance

“…Recent work has reinforced the idea that citizens bring their "priors" (Skogan, 2012) to interactions with the police, and these personal or vicarious experiences shape both the encounter itself and how an individual remembers it. For example, Sargeant, Murphy, and Madon (2018) found in a survey of Australians that higher levels of citizen defiance at baseline were associated with lower levels of perceived PJ and satisfaction with a subsequent police contact. This could reflect that these citizens were more challenging to please, or it could be that these more defiant citizens were especially difficult to interact with in a procedurally just fashion.…”