Procedural Justice, Obligation to Obey, and Cooperation with Police in a Sample of Saudi Arabian Citizens

• In Event: Perspectives on Crime and Justice in an International Context

Abstract

This study contributes to the extant literature by being the first to examine the relative impacts of a normative factor (procedural justice) and instrumental factors (police effectiveness and risk of sanctioning) of policing on the internalized sense of obligation to obey and willingness to cooperate with the police in Saudi Arabia. The study’s importance is enhanced by the fact that it was carried out in the Middle East, a region that has rarely been studied by policing scholars. Using cross-sectional data from a sample of 235 Saudi citizens, both procedural justice and effectiveness predicted Saudi citizens’ internalized sense of obligation to obey their country’s police. In addition, procedural justice, effectiveness, gender, and homeownership predicted Saudi citizens’ willingness to cooperate with Saudi police. Surprisingly, obligation did not predict cooperation. The implications of our findings for policing, policy, and future research are addressed.

Authors

• Francis Boateng, University of Mississippi

• Daniel Pryce, Old Dominion University

• Hajed Alotaibi, Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia