What Impacts Perceptions of Police Procedural Justice and Effectiveness at the Street-Level?

• In Event: Communities and Place: Understanding Social Processes and Improving Social Justice at Crime Hot Spots

Abstract

Objective: While there has been significant study of the relationship between police legitimacy and its key antecedents - procedural justice (PJ) and police effectiveness (PE) - little attention has been paid to what impacts evaluations of PJ and PE. Our study focuses on these perceptions at the local level of street segments.

Data/Methods: Our analyses utilize survey data collected on 447 street segments in Baltimore City, MD, in two waves. We first use exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to determine the latent structure of PJ and PE measures. We then use mixed effects OLS regression modelling techniques to examine a “scorecard” of perceptions of the police.

Results: The results of the EFA show a single latent structure that we term the scorecard for PJ and PE. While we find that experiences with the police and street conditions that the police are presumed to impact influence the scorecard, street conditions that are likely not impacted by police (collective efficacy and concentrated disadvantage) also have strong influence.

Conclusions/Implications: Both the research and policy-oriented literature often view the police as primarily responsible for their public image. Our data suggest that such perceptions may also be rooted, to varying degrees, in factors outside police control.

Authors

• David Weisburd, George Mason University / Hebrew University

• Tal Jonathan-Zamir, The Hebrew University, Israel

• Clair White, University of Wyoming

• David B. Wilson, George Mason University

• Kiseong Kuen, George Mason University