Mechanisms for Eliciting Cooperation in Counterterrorism Policing: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Abstract

This study examines the effects of counterterrorism policing tactics on public cooperation amongst Muslim communities in London, U.K. It tests a procedural justice model developed in the context of studying crime control in the United States. The study reports results of a random-

Legitimating Practices: Revisiting the Predicates of Police Legitimacy

“…In the aftermath of disclosures by Edward Snowden about the extent of secret data collection by both British and also American governments, there was a vigorous public debate about the value and appropriateness of such surveillance programs. Moreover, an earlier study of British Muslims' experience with counterterrorism policing (Huq et al 2011b) found that one predictor of procedural justice judgements was the extent to which respondents believed that their community was subject to electronic surveillance. There are two possible ways of interpreting our finding in light of that earlier result.…”

“…Studies of structural dimensions of policing strategy-such as counterterrorism policinghave also tended to focus either on interpersonal encounters or on individuals' perceptions of how police behave when they do encounter suspects (Tyler et al 2010). Indeed, when studies go beyond respondents' direct experience with police to investigate issues of racial fairness and profiling, the instruments used focus on how individual members of another racial or ethnic group are treated (Huq et al 2011b). These studies also isolate interpersonal interactions as the most important structural aspect of policing beyond respondents' own experience.…”

Theories of police legitimacy – its sources and effects

“…: 76). 17 An interesting finding by Huq, Tyler and Schulhofer (2011) indicates, that procedural fairness leads to willingness to cooperate with the police even among British Muslims, who probably do not have a strong tie with the police due to low identification with British state. Nevertheless, fair police treatment did not change their views of police legitimacy.…”

Trust in Justice 'Abroad' and the Role of Legitimacy in 'New-Crimes'

“…Prior research indicates that the perceived legitimacy of the criminal justice system activates self-regulatory mechanisms: when people believe that legal authorities have the right to power and the right to dictate appropriate behaviour, they tend to defer to, and cooperate with, legitimate authorities because they feel it is the right thing to do (e.g. Tyler, 2006aTyler, , 2006bElliott et al, 2011;Huq et al, 2011aHuq et al, , 2011bJackson et al, 2012aJackson et al, , 2012bMazerolle et al, 2013;Murphy & Cherney, 2012). This work also shows the centrality of procedural justice to legitimacy: when police act in line with the norms and values of procedural justice, members of the public tend to believe that the police have the right to power.…”

“…This is a psychological account of legitimacy: legitimacy exists when people believe (a) that the police wield their power in appropriate ways Bradford et al, 2014;Hough et al, 2013) and (b) that they have a positive moral duty to allow the police to dictate appropriate behaviour (Murphy, Tyler & Curtis, 2009;Papachristos, Meares & Fagan, 2012;Mazerolle, Bennett, Antrobus & Tyler , 2013). Importantly, studies have found a number of downstream effects of legitimacy, including offending behavior (Sunshine & Tyler, 2003;Fagan & Tyler, 2005;Tyler, 2006a;Fagan & Piquero, 2007;Cohn et al, 2012;Jackson et al, 2012a;Trinkner & Cohn, 2014;Tyler & Jackson, 2014;Jackson, 2015;Brunton-Smith & McCarthy, 2015) and willingness to cooperate with the police (Tyler & Fagan, 2008;Tyler et al, 2010;Huq et al, 2011aHuq et al, , 2011bJackson et al, 2012b;Dirikx & van den Bulck, 2014). This research has important implications for crime-control ).…”