Self-Help, Policing, and Procedural Justice: Ghanaian Vigilantism and the Rule of Law

Abstract

Public recourse to vigilante self-help has often been attributed to a lack of effective state intervention; less attention has been given to the character of this intervention. Using the Tylerian procedural justice perspective, I argue in this article that perceived procedural injustice contributes to increased public support for violent self-help mechanisms such as vigilante violence. The current study tests this theoretical argument using survey data of 374 residents of Accra, Ghana. The results show that age, education, and police trustworthiness were the most significant predictors of support for vigilante self-help. The impacts of procedural fairness were found to be embraced within police trustworthiness, but perceptions of police effectiveness and experience of police corruption were not statistically significant predictors of vigilante support.

Corruption and Police Legitimacy in Lahore, Pakistan

“…Such research as exists from the Caribbean (Reisig & Lloyd, 2009;Kochel et al, 2013), Ghana (Tankebe, 2009(Tankebe, , 2010 and South Africa (Bradford et al, 2014a) is broadly supportive of procedural justice theory. But these studies also stress the importance of police corruption and perceived effectiveness.…”

“…Is procedural justice a strong predictor of police legitimacy, like it is in Anglo-Saxon countries? Might effectiveness and corruption be equally -if not moreimportant, as has been found in Ghana (Tankebe, 2009(Tankebe, , 2010? To assess the links between people's experience of corruption, beliefs about the fairness and effectiveness of the police, and perceptions of legitimacy, we draw upon procedural justice theory to structure our analysis.…”

“…But others maintain that this is a somewhat narrow concept of legitimacy (Tankebe, 2009;Hough et al, 2010;Jackson et al, 2012aJackson et al, , 2012bBottoms & Tankebe 2012;Tyler & Jackson, 2014). In as much as it is granted by the individual to the institution, legitimacy might also be the moral justification (in the eyes of the policed) of an institution's existence, function, power and activity.…”

“…But perceived effectiveness may be more important in quite different countries (e.g. Ghana, see Tankebe, 2009;and South Africa, see Bradford et al, 2014a) and more important for particular social groups (e.g. certain ethnic minority groups in Australia, see Murphy & Cherney, 2012;Sargeant et al, 2013).…”

“…certain ethnic minority groups in Australia, see Murphy & Cherney, 2012;Sargeant et al, 2013). In a survey of 374 adult residents of Accra, Tankebe (2009) found that judgements of the procedural fairness and effectiveness of the police were equally strongly associated with generalized trust in the police. Moreover, procedural fairness specifically that they share moral values with citizens -and that officers act lawfully , 2014Jackson et al, 2014).…”