Procedural justice versus risk factors for offending: Predicting recidivism in youth.

Abstract

Theories of procedural justice suggest that individuals who experience respectful and fair legal decisionmaking procedures are more likely to believe in the legitimacy of the law and, in turn, are less likely to reoffend. However, few studies have examined these relationships in youth. To begin to fill this gap in the literature, in the current study, the authors studied 92 youth (67 male, 25 female) on probation regarding their perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy, and then monitored their offending over the subsequent 6 months. Results indicated that perceptions of procedural justice predicted self-reported offending at 3 months but not at 6 months, and that youths' beliefs about the legitimacy of the law did not mediate this relationship. Furthermore, procedural justice continued to account for unique variance in self-reported offending over and above the predictive power of well-established risk factors for offending (i.e., peer delinquency, substance abuse, psychopathy, and age at first contact with the law). Theoretically, the current study provides evidence that models of procedural justice developed for adults are only partially replicated in a sample of youth; practically, this research suggests that by treating adolescents in a fair and just manner, justice professionals may be able to reduce the likelihood that adolescents will reoffend, at least in the short term.

The bumpy road to change: a retrospective qualitative study on formerly detained adolescents’ trajectories towards better lives

“…Our results show that being treated with respect and authentic care, as well as being treated in a reasonable and fair way, highly contributed to adolescents’ sense of wellbeing during their stay. This resonates with findings on ‘procedural justice’ in other studies [35] and refers to aspects such as being fully informed of one’s own trajectory and prospects, as well as being listened to and having a say in decisions. This is also compatible with a recent study on adolescents’ experiences of repression in residential youth care, which decrease if their autonomy is respected and treatment is perceived as more personally meaningful [36].…”

Questioning fairness: the relationship of mental health and psychopathic characteristics with young offenders' perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy

“…Their legal history was extracted from files by research assistants, who also coded the PCL‐YV using file and interview information. More detail about study methods and participants is provided in Penner et al ().…”

Forcible Stops: Police and Citizens Speak Out

“…Young men and women see police as more legitimate when they were viewed as acting fairly and lawfully. Lowered legitimacy can influence both law‐abidingness and the willingness to cooperate with legal authorities (Penner et al ; Tyler, Fagan, and Geller ). Respondents in Brownsville were not informed of any wrongdoing when they experienced police contact.…”