Metropolitana Police Officers in Buenos Aires and Procedural Justice

• In Event: Police and Procedural Justice

Abstract

How do police officers feel about procedural justice - the fairness of group rules and processes? And to what extent do such attitudes affect police (mis)behavior? Using data that was collected among 955 police officers of the Metropolitana Police in Buenos Aires, we explored the impact of internal and external procedural justice on 1) officer compliance with supervisors and policies; 2) officer tolerance toward the use of force against citizens; and 3) police corruption. One of our findings is that internal processes within the police organization can affect the way officers treat citizens in encounters on the street. Our study thus leads us to conclude that the procedural justice approach allows for a theoretically informed understanding of how organizations can encourage proper police behavior and can provide police management with specific tools to combat police disobedience and misconduct.

Authors

• Nicole E. Haas, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Maarten Van Craen, Leuven Institute for Criminology

• Wesley G. Skogan, Northwestern University