Parental and student perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy in the context of truancy: Results from a randomized field trial
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Author | Elizabeth Eggins,Sarah Bennett,Lorraine Mazerolle,Emma Antrobus |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865819853320 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Parental and student
perceptions of procedural
justice and legitimacy in the
context of truancy: Results
from a randomized
field trial
Emma Antrobus , Sarah Bennett,
Lorraine Mazerolle and Elizabeth Eggins
School of Social Science and ARC Centre of Excellence in Children
and Families over the Life Course, The University of
Queensland, Australia
Abstract
The legitimacy of authorities is paramount to their ability to exercise their powers. We
examine truanting students’ and their parents’ perceptions of the legitimacy of authorities
in the context of the adapted family group conference component of the Ability School
Engagement Program (ASEP), a police–school partnership aimed at reducing antisocial behav-
ior. To evaluate the program, 102 truanting students were randomly allocated to a control or
the ASEP condition. Students’ and their parents’ perceptions of authorities were collected to
explore how this intervention component, specifically designed to encourage legitimacy
views through procedural justice, impacted perceptions of police and school staff. Results
indicated that parents participating in ASEP conferences showed significant changes in their
perceptions of legitimacy of authorities. ASEP parents’ perceptions of police increased fol-
lowing the conference, but parental perceptions of school legitimacy appeared to be affected
by perceptions of the procedural justness (or unjustness) of specific authority figures in the
conference. Parental views of school authorities were driven by the few school representa-
tives who failed to engage families in procedurally just ways. Students themselves
showed little change in their views following the ASEP conference, suggestin g the conference
alone was not sufficient for bringing about changes in student perceptions of authori-
ty legitimacy.
Corresponding author:
Emma Antrobus, School of Social Science and ARC Centre of Excellence in Children and Families over the Life
Course, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
Email: e.antrobus@uq.edu.au
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2019, Vol. 52(4) 534–557
!The Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0004865819853320
journals.sagepub.com/home/anj
Keywords
Legitimacy, procedural justice, randomized experiment, truancy
Date received: 16 May 2018; accepted: 6 May 2019
Introduction
The legitimacy of authorities is fundamental to ensuring that they can exercise their
powers effectively and gain compliance. In the case of antisocial behavior, research
suggests that perceptions of legitimacy are related to more negative views toward vio-
lence (Jackson, Huq, Bradford, & Tyler, 2013) and reduced offending (Fagan &
Piquero, 2007; Tyler, Sherman, Strang, Barnes, & Woods, 2007). The way that author-
ities exercise their power and enforce laws and policies can impact the way authorities
are perceived. Ensuring that the procedures they implement and follow are seen as fair
and just may be key for ensuring that authorities are granted legitimacy and subse-
quently ensuring that antisocial behavior does not continue.
Research on the legitimacy of authorities has mostly been conducted on adult pop-
ulations; however, it is important to understand perceptions of both young people and
adults (Murphy, 2015). Institutional authorities like the police and schools require the
cooperation and compliance of both young people and their parents, and judgments of
the legitimacy and fairness of authorities’ procedures are key for fostering this type of
cooperation (Tyler, 2006). Yet, little research has investigated both young people and
their parents’ views on these judgments, particularly in response to a specific
intervention.
This paper discusses the impact of the family group conference component of the
Ability School Engagement Program (ASEP) on procedural justice and legitimacy per-
ceptions of students and their parents. As a whole, the ASEP truancy intervention was
designed to explicitly utilize procedural justice as a mechanism to cultivate participants’
perceptions of the legitimacy of authorities with the ultimate goal of reducing antisocial
behavior and truancy. The ASEP police–school partnership consisted of three key
components: an adapted family group conference (including conference preparation
and the development of an action plan), the monitoring of the action plan, and an
exit meeting. This study focuses on the outcomes following the ASEP conference com-
ponent, which involved a procedurally just dialogue surrounding the legal policies relat-
ing to truancy. Specifically, police and school representatives came together to discuss
the young person’s truancy in a manner that acknowledged the issues faced by the
families, as well as their legislative responsibilities, in a manner that was unbiased
and constructive.
Truancy
Truancy, or chronic school absenteeism, is a significant issue that can have implications
broadly for the lives and wellbeing of young people. The term “truancy” here is used to
describe situations where students miss school without a valid reason (e.g. Kearney,
2008). The definition of truancy varies in the literature, yet is typically defined in terms
Antrobus et al. 535
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