POLICE DISCRETION AND PROCEDURAL JUSTICE

Measuring Police Attitudes 1 POLICE DISCRETION Measuring Police Attitudes Towards Discretion

This paper describes the construction of two scales to measure police attitudes towards the selective enforcement of the law. The Service-Legalistic (S-L) scale measures police discretion along a flexible-inflexible continuum. Service-oriented police advocate the use of discretion to help solve social problems; legalistic police oppose discretion because it interferes with their duty to enforce...

Procedural Justice and Innovation: Does Procedural Justice Foster Innovative Behavior?

The influence of procedural justice on intended innovative behavior was studied in a sample of students and employees. Although earlier studies suggests that procedural justice increases innovation-related behavior such as spontaneous cooperation, so far systematic research is scarce. Results indicated that the provision of voice increased participants’ intention to show innovative behavior suc...

Police investigations: discretion denied yet undeniably exercised.

Police investigations involve determining whether a crime has been committed, and if so what type of crime, who has committed it and whether there is the evidence to charge the perpetrators. Drawing on fieldwork in Delhi and Mumbai, this paper explores how police investigations unfolded in the specific context of women's deaths by burning in India. In particular, it focuses on the use of discre...

Deservingness and perceptions of procedural justice in citizen encounters with the police

Shaping Citizen Perceptions of Police Legitimacy: a Randomized Field Trial of Procedural Justice∗

Exploring the relationship between procedural justice and citizen perceptions of police is a well-trodden pathway. Studies show that when citizens perceive the police acting in a procedurally just manner—by treating people with dignity and respect, and by being fair and neutral in their actions—they view the police as legitimate and are more likely to comply with directives and cooperate with p...