Shaping Citizen Perceptions of Police Legitimacy: A Randomized Field Trial of Procedural Justice

TLDR

Procedural justice—treating people with dignity, respect, fairness, and neutrality—has been shown to increase perceptions of police legitimacy and compliance. The study tests the direct and indirect effects of procedural justice policing in a randomized field trial. The authors evaluate whether a single, police‑initiated, procedurally just traffic stop can improve legitimacy perceptions and shape broader attitudes toward police. Results reveal that procedurally just traffic encounters significantly enhance legitimacy perceptions for the encounter and overall attitudes compared to routine stops, supporting the theorized model and highlighting benefits for police.

Abstract

Exploring the relationship between procedural justice and citizen perceptions of police is a well‐trodden pathway. Studies show that when citizens perceive the police acting in a procedurally just manner—by treating people with dignity and respect, and by being fair and neutral in their actions—they view the police as legitimate and are more likely to comply with directives and cooperate with police. Our article examines both the direct and the indirect outcomes of procedural justice policing, tested under randomized field trial conditions. We assess whether police can enhance perceptions of legitimacy during a short, police‐initiated and procedurally just traffic encounter and how this single encounter shapes general views of police. Our results show significant differences between the control and experimental conditions: Procedurally just traffic encounters with police (experimental condition) shape citizen views about the actual encounter directly and general orientations toward the police relative to business‐as‐usual traffic stops in the control group. The theorized model is supported by our research, demonstrating that the police have much to gain from acting fairly during even short encounters with citizens.