Training police for procedural justice: An evaluation of officer attitudes, citizen attitudes, and police-citizen interactions
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| Author | Mengyan Dai |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X20960791 |
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
2021, Vol. 94(4) 481 –495
Article
Training police for
procedural justice: An
evaluation of officer
attitudes, citizen attitudes,
and police-citizen interactions
Mengyan Dai
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University,
Norfolk, VA, USA
Abstract
This paper reports the findings of an evaluation of a police training program on proce-
dural justice. The evaluation focused on the short- and long-term effects of the training
on officers’ attitudes toward four principles of procedural justice (i.e., trustworthiness,
neutrality, voice, and respect). The evaluation also assessed officers’ behaviors on the
street and citizens’ interactions such as citizen demeanor and compliance with police
requests. Finally, it assessed how the interacting citizens perceived the police. Taken
together, the comprehensive data suggested that the procedural justice training was
effective both immediately and in the long run. Policy implications are discussed.
Keywords
Police training, procedural justice, evaluation
Introduction
The extensive body of scholarship has suggested that procedural justice plays a signif-
icant role in improving the public’s perception about police legitimacy (Dai et al., 2011;
Mazerolle et al., 2013b; Sunshine and Tyler, 2003; Tyler, 2004). In addition, contem-
porary community standards have increasingly demanded that police departments make
fairness one of their highest priorities (President’s Task Force on the 21
st
Century
Corresponding author:
Mengyan Dai, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529,
USA.
Email: mdai@odu.edu
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0032258X20960791
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