Anjuli Van Damme

The impact of police contact on trust and police legitimacy in Belgium

Personal contact with the police is mentioned as one of the key predictors of individuals’ opinions towards the police. But findings from earlier research contradict each other. Some researchers found an asymmetric relationship with a much stronger effect from unsatisfactory contact, compared with satisfactory contact, with regard to trust in the police and police legitimacy. Others found a more symmetrical relationship. In a way, these different findings can be due to different measures of trust and legitimacy. In the literature there is no consensus about the meaning and measurement of these concepts. The purpose of this study is therefore to test the (a)symmetrical relationship while taking into account criticisms about trust and legitimacy. More precisely, we consider trust in police procedural justice and trust in police effectiveness as two components of trust having an influence on police legitimacy in the form of moral alignment. Feeling an obligation to obey the police is considered as an outcome...Personal contact with the police is mentioned as one of the key predictors of individuals’ opinions towards the police. But findings from earlier research contradict each other. Some researchers found an asymmetric relationship with a much stronger effect from unsatisfactory contact, compared with satisfactory contact, with regard to trust in the police and police legitimacy. Others found a more symmetrical relationship. In a way, these different findings can be due to different measures of trust and legitimacy. In the literature there is no consensus about the meaning and measurement of these concepts. The purpose of this study is therefore to test the (a)symmetrical relationship while taking into account criticisms about trust and legitimacy. More precisely, we consider trust in police procedural justice and trust in police effectiveness as two components of trust having an influence on police legitimacy in the form of moral alignment. Feeling an obligation to obey the police is considered as an outcome of moral alignment. We used path models in MPlus to do the analyses, which were conducted on data collected from the Social capital and Well-being In Neighbourhoods in Ghent (SWING) survey, Belgium. The results show a more symmetrical relationship between contact and both components of trust. Furthermore, trust in police procedural justice was found to be a stronger predictor for moral alignment than trust in police effectiveness. Moral alignment itself seemed to be a strong predictor for feeling an obligation to obey the police.

How to measure procedurally (un)just behavior during police-citizen interactions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to validate an instrument, based on previous research, for measuring procedurally just and unjust police behavior during interactions with citizens. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from September 2015 to January 2016 using systematic social observations in two local police forces in Belgium. A total of 284 full police-citizen interactions were observed. The authors describe and explain how the procedurally (un)just police behavior is measured and discuss existing research on the subject. The authors also test the validity of the instrument and stress the importance of making a distinction between procedurally just and unjust behavior, which has often been overlooked in previous research. Findings The measurement instrument passed the validity test, except for the procedurally just neutrality sub-index. The findings also confirm that both procedurally just and procedurally unjust police behavior can occur in the same interaction. Moreover, except for the trustworthy sub-indexes, the authors found a stronger negative correlation of procedurally unjust behavior with the citizen’s behavior compared to the strength of the positive correlations of the procedural justice indexes. Research limitations/implications The findings confirm a usable measurement instrument for research about procedural justice using systematic social observations. Important improvements were made to instruments that have been utilized in previous research. One of the most important recommendations for future research is to make a distinction between procedurally just and unjust police behavior. Originality/value This study is the first in which all four elements of police procedurally just behavior as well as their four procedurally unjust variants were measured using systematic social observations.