Citation

Donner CM. Police Pract. Res. 2021; 22(1): 240-256.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15614263.2020.1821679

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Over the last decade, the American policing has endured a legitimacy crisis. During this time, many citizens - particularly citizens of color - have begun to lose trust and confidence in the police. The legitimacy crisis has underscored the importance of procedurally just policing practices, and it is largely why procedural justice was a cornerstone recommendation of President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. On the other hand, procedurally unjust practices have been conceptualized as police misconduct because officers who are unfair, biased, rude, and ambiguous during police-citizen encounters are engaging in behavior that violates the law, department policy, and/or ethical codes of conduct. Accordingly, officers' procedurally unjust behavior should be able to be explained through a general theory of crime, such as Gottfredson and Hirschi's low self-control theory. To test this assertion, survey data are analyzed from a sample of officers from a Midwestern police department. The results indicate that low self-control is initially related officers' procedurally unjust behavior, but the relationship disappears in a multivariate context. Instead, organizational justice and cynicism are found to be more influential. Specific findings, theoretical and policy implications, and study limitations are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

legitimacy; Police; procedural justice; self-control