Internal Procedural Justice, Moral Alignment, and External Procedural Justice in Democratic Policing

• In Event: ACCCJ Police and Policing in China

Abstract

Notwithstanding the popularity of the process-based model of policing, its application to police organizations remains underdeveloped. Based on survey data collected from Taiwan police officers, this study explored the connection between internal procedural justice and external procedural justice through the mechanisms of moral alignment with both supervisors and citizens, and perception of citizen trustworthiness. Findings of this study showed that the Western-based procedural justice model can be applied to a Chinese setting where the culture, sociopolitical setting, crime rates, and police system are quite distinct. Fair supervision was found to be instrumental in building up moral alignment between officers and supervisors and between officers and citizens, which in turn led to stronger commitment to responsiveness and fair treatment of the public. Moral alignment with supervisors and citizens also cultivated officers’ perceptions of public trustworthiness, which similarly strengthened officers’ response and fair treatment toward the public. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Authors

• Ivan Sun, University of Delaware

• Yuning Wu, Wayne State University

• Maarten Van Craen, University of Leuven, Belgium