Procedural Justice and Demographic Diversity: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Police Recruitment

Abstract

Online recruitment materials are often the first encounter for individuals considering a police career. Procedural justice (PJ) theory argues that how police officers treat the public is an important predictor for future citizen cooperation. Taking steps towards becoming a police officer is a unique form of organizational cooperation. This project examined job interest for a sample of 993 respondents in Amazon’s mTurk, experimentally manipulating whether the presented recruitment materials emphasized PJ policing or not (PJ content) in a quasi-experimental vignette design. The PJ content significantly increased two of the four job interest outcomes. PJ theory also argues fair and respectful treatment should impact all groups similarly, deemed the invariance thesis. The results largely showed groups being influenced in similar ways. This study’s findings largely support this extension of PJ theory, and are useful to practitioners interested in building their recruitment pool through economical changes in recruitment materials.

Legitimacy-Based Policing and the Promotion of Community Vitality

“…This argument is made by Tyler and Huo (2002) and has been called the invariance argument. It has subsequently been supported in whole or in part by a series of studies (Aiello, 2021;Brown & Reisig, 2019;Pina-Sánchez & Brunton-Smith, 2020;Reisig et al, 2021;Wheelock, Stroshine, & O'Hear, 2019;Wolfe et al, 2016;Zahnow, Mazerolle, & Pang, 2021).…”

Promoting the police: A thematic analysis of the New Zealand Police recruitment campaigns and the construction of officers’ identities

“…The marketing strategies that have been considered ‘effective’ have tended to highlight the variety of roles available to future officers, benefits packages, and career development (Charrier, 2000) but for the most part, have been found to deter minority groups because historically, these recruitment attempts have been Eurocentric (Wilson et al, 2013). As a result, in recent years, more of an emphasis has been placed on recruiting for a diverse police force that will bring with it legitimacy, positive community relations, knowledge, and comfort with people of different backgrounds (Aiello, 2021; Donohue, 2020; Linos, 2018). The objective is to have those engaging in the policing, who are representative of the people they police.…”