Procedural Justice, Perceived Legitimacy, and Reoffending Behavior: In Police and Court Setting

Abstract

Despite the increasing body of procedural justice research studying individuals involved in the criminal justice system, this strand of literature has used different approaches to measure procedural justice and legitimacy. The present study assesses the different theoretical assumptions of these approaches across two criminal justice settings, namely, policing and courts. In addition, we examine how procedural justice stemming from interactions with police officers and judges is related to legitimacy and reoffending behavior postrelease. Using data on adult detainees who entered Dutch pretrial detention centers, our findings support the theoretical assumptions regarding procedural justice and felt obligation to obey the law in both criminal justice settings. Furthermore, path analyses show that perceptions of procedural justice arising from encounters with police officers and judges are related to a higher sense of obligation to obey the law, which in turn is associated with a lower risk of reoffending.

Perceptions of Probation Officer Procedural Justice and Recidivism: A Longitudinal Study in the Netherlands

“…analysis Before the hypotheses were tested, confirmatory factor analyses were carried out. Previous empirical work on the procedural justice framework among justice-involved individuals has examined the discriminant validity of the key concepts underlying the framework (Baker & gau, 2018;van Hall et al, 2023cvan Hall et al, , 2024white et al, 2016). Following this strand of research, we explored the discriminant validity of procedural justice and felt the obligation to obey by conducting confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) on two measurement models.…”

“…These studies have mainly examined the consequences of procedurally just treatment by police officers (e.g., Baker & gau, 2018;Paternoster et al, 1997;white et al, 2016), judges (e.g., Baker et al, 2015;Shook et al, 2021;Sprott & greene, 2010;van Hall et al, 2023a), lawyers (Peterson-Badali et al, 2007;Sprott & greene, 2010), and correctional staff in prison and jails (e.g., Baker et al, 2021;Barkworth & Murphy, 2021;Beijersbergen et al, 2016;Steiner & wooldredge, 2015Steiner & wooldredge, , 2018van Hall et al, 2023b). In general, this strand of procedural justice literature suggests that fair and respectful treatment by criminal justice authorities results in higher legitimacy beliefs (e.g., Baker & gau, 2018;van Hall et al, 2024), lower levels of misconduct in detention (e.g., Maguire et al, 2021;Reisig & Meško, 2009), and a lower likelihood to be reconvicted after release (Beijersbergen et al, 2016;van Hall et al, 2023avan Hall et al, , 2023c.…”