Predicting Ethnic Minority Group Defiance Toward Police: Testing an Integrated Model of Emotion, Legitimacy and Procedural Justice

• In Event: Police Legitimacy and Procedural Justice (1): New Perspectives on Police-Citizen Relations

Abstract

Community collaboration with police is central to successfully preventing and controlling crime. However people do not always want to engage with police, and police often struggle to encourage members of the public to cooperate with them. This can be especially so for some ethnic and racial minority groups. In this study we seek to address how police can reduce defiance among such population groups. Using a longitudinal dataset of 1204 Australian citizens (including 229 ethnic minority respondents) we draw on Valerie Braithwaite’s (2009) ‘Theory of Defiance’ to better understand how ethnicity, emotion and procedural justice contribute to public perceptions of police legitimacy and people’s willingness to cooperate with police. We show that procedural justice can reduce negative emotions and defiance experienced during contacts with police, can improve perceptions of police legitimacy, and can enhance people’s willingness to cooperate with police.

Authors

• Elise Sargeant, Griffith University

• Kristina Murphy, Griffith University

• Natasha Madon, Griffith University