Disentangling the Relative Importance of the Major Dimensions of Procedural Justice and Trustworthiness

• In Event: Understanding and Advancing Legitimacy Theory II

Abstract

Police departments and policy makers have long expended considerable energy working to protect and improve the police-community relationship. Work over the last few decades has taken considerable strides in understanding what the police can do to improve their relationships with the public but confusion remains regarding the relative importance of the attitudinal elements on the public side of the relationship. Of particular concern is sorting among the various dimensions of procedural fairness and trustworthiness to identify the constructs of greatest importance to fostering legitimacy and trust. This research seeks to shed light on this question by experimentally testing the relative importance of several evaluations of the police. In place of standard survey methodology however, the current research asks participants to determine from among three different procedural justice or trustworthiness factors (randomly assigned between-groups), which are most important to them in four scenarios (presented within-groups). Implications for theory and practice will be discussed.

Authors

• Joseph Hamm, Michigan State University

• Scott Wolfe, Michigan State University