Neighborhood informal social control capacity and behavior and perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy: Testing associations between formal and informal social control processes

• In Event: Latinos, Immigrants, and the Importance of Police Views and Emerging Issues

Abstract

Research on procedural justice and police legitimacy has neglected the potential for neighborhood informal social control processes to impact these perceptions. For example, in neighborhoods where residents tend to have high levels of procedural justice and legitimacy, there may be a sense that the police “have their back” which could serve as a foundation for the formation of high levels of informal neighborhood social control. Alternatively, in neighborhoods where residents have low levels of procedural justice and legitimacy, there may be a belief that residents are “on their own” and cannot count on the police and, as a result, generate high levels of informal neighborhood social control to compensate for this absence. Using Reisig and colleagues (2007) process-based model of policing, this research employs multi-level modeling to assess associations between measures of neighborhood-level informal social control capacity and behavior and individual-level perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy among residents. Results will advance knowledge of procedural justice and legitimacy by incorporating a neglected dynamic, neighborhood informal social control, which could have important impacts on these perceptions of policing.

Author

• Theodore R. Curry, The University of Texas at El Paso