Tal Jonathan-Zamir

Measuring Procedural Justice in Police-Citizen Encounters

Procedural justice has dominated recent discussions of police interactions with the public. It has mostly been measured from the perspective of citizens (using surveys or interviews), but several important questions about predictors and outcomes of fair police treatment are best answered using direct observations of police-citizen interactions. Building on prior observational studies, we develop and validate an instrument for measuring procedural justice as it is exercised by the police in the natural setting of their encounters with the public. In doing so, we adopt a “formative” rather than the common “reflective” approach, based on the assumption that specific behaviors that make up procedural justice do not reflect a single underlying construct but rather form one. We justify this approach and validate our instrument accordingly. We also discuss the implications of our measurement for future research on procedural justice in police behavior.

Predicting Procedural Justice in Police–Citizen Encounters:

Police exercise great discretion in their dealings with the public, but most research on police discretion focuses on coercive decisions. Despite the demonstrated importance of procedural justice (PJ) for police legitimacy and overall satisfaction, the predictors of police-provided PJ in police–citizen encounters have rarely been examined. We propose a framework for assessing the choice of police officers to engage in PJ and test it using data collected in direct observations of police interactions with the public. We find significant effects for the moral “worthiness” of the citizen as reflected in his or her role in the situation; for situational challenges of engaging in PJ, including large audience and officer mental/emotional fatigue; and for popular scripts for handling traffic-related encounters and serving in a backup role. We interpret and discuss the implications of our findings and suggest avenues for advancing understanding of the factors underlying procedurally just police treatment.

Lessons from empirical research on policing in Israel: policing terrorism and police-community relationships

This article reviews recent empirical research on policing terrorism and police–community relationships in Israel, for the purpose of drawing lessons for policing in Israel and other democratic societies. The studies in the first section reveal the implications of policing terrorism for crime control and police–community relationships. In the second section, studies show a long-term drop in public support for the police. They also address the implementation of community policing, the relationship between the Israel National Police and the Arab sector, and the importance of procedural justice to Israeli citizens. In our discussion, we take a broad perspective and suggest overall conclusions and implications.

How has the Israel National Police perceived its role in counterterrorism and the potential outcomes? A qualitative analysis of annual police reports

Policing terrorism has increased in recent years. Correspondingly, policing scholars and practitioners have begun to consider the potential effects of this responsibility on the performance of the police and their relationship with the public. In this article, we use a qualitative analysis of annual police reports to examine how the Israel National Police perceived its role in counterterrorism and the potential implications. We find different perceptions in different periods and partial acknowledgment of potential outcomes. We consider the views of the police in relation to those of the public, and speculate on the differences between the three examined time periods.

Trends in Israeli policing: terrorism, community, victimization and crime control

Policing has become an important area of innovation in criminology and in practice over the last few decades. In methodology, policing has emerged as a key area of evidence-based policy in criminal justice (see Lum, Koper, & Telep, 2011; Sherman, 1998; Weisburd & Neyroud, 2011), and the police have become one of the most open agents of the criminal justice system to new ideas and new approaches (see Weisburd & Braga, 2006). The science of policing has advanced greatly, and there is now much evidence not only that the police can be effective (National Research Council, 2004; Weisburd & Eck, 2004) but also that policing and police data can play a role in advancing scientific understanding of crime and the relationships between the community and criminal justice (e.g. Gill, Weisburd, Bennett, Telep, & Vitter, in progress; Telep & Weisburd, 2012; Tyler, 2011; Weisburd, Groff, & Yang, 2012). The advances in police science over the last few decades in the US and the UK have also impacted scientific study of the police in many other countries. This special issue reports on the advancement of police research in Israel. As the papers suggest, cuttingedge methods and cutting-edge questions are being asked regarding Israeli policing. But the papers suggest as well that there is much to learn about the police enterprise by looking to Israel. Clearly, comparative studies are critical to identify whether phenomena observed in the US for example can also be found in other settings. The paper by Weisburd and Amram provides a good example of the utility of examining key findings in different contexts. Weisburd and Amram show that the concentration of crime at micro-geographic units or crime ‘hot spots,’ occurs in Tel Aviv. Indeed, their results are strikingly similar to those reported in Seattle, Washington and other American cities (e.g. Weisburd et al., 2012). They argue for a law of crime concentrations. Examining crime hot spots in Israel provides accordingly important comparative data for advancing this area of study. This is also illustrated in Aviv’s examination of attitudes of victims and non-victims towards the police. Using data from a national survey in Israel, Aviv asks whether the data on victims in Israel mirrors that of US and European studies. Her findings show the remarkable salience of performance, treatment and trust evaluations, and provide important new data in a different national context, in support of work that emphasizes not only the importance of police legitimacy but the special situation of crime victims. Factor, Castilo and Rattner broaden the examination of public evaluations of the police. While public views are often measured in Israel, the ‘legitimacy’ of the police as frequently examined today (e.g. National Research Council, 2004; Tyler, 2004, 2009), its antecedents and outcomes have rarely been examined in the Israeli context (see JonathanZamir & Weisburd, 2013, for an exception). Factor et al. replicate the process-based model

Predicting Support for Procedurally Just Treatment: The Case of the Israel National Police:

The importance of police treating citizens with procedural justice is well recognized. Recently, scholars have begun exploring officers’ views and beliefs that are associated with support for procedurally fair policing, but have not relied on a consistent conceptual framework. In the present study, we propose such a framework, focusing on three core realms of the policing environment: officers’ affiliation with their supervisors, officers’ perceptions of their authority and powers, and officers’ relationship with the public. We then use this framework to predict Israeli police officers’ endorsement of procedurally just policing. We find positive, direct effects for perceived public support, self-legitimacy, years of experience, and being a minority officer. In contrast to previous findings, internal procedural and distributive justice did not show significant effects. We discuss these findings and their implications, and stress that the relationship between attitudes toward procedural justice and actual behavior continues to be explored.

Terrorist Threats and Police Performance

Do terrorist threats impact police performance in fighting crime? In this chapter we provide a systematic quantitative examination of the impacts of terrorist threats on the ability of police to “solve,” or “clear” cases. We take advantage of the unusually high terrorist threats in Israeli communities during the Second Palestinian Intifada in Israel (2000–2004), while paying special attention to the type of community (Jewish/Arab). Our findings show that, as expected, terrorist threats have a significant effect on police performance: overall, as threat levels rise clearance rates decline. However, the effect varies strongly by type of community: higher levels of threat are associated with lower proportions of cleared cases in the majority Jewish communities and higher proportions in the minority Arab communities. We attribute the negative effect in Jewish communities to the decline in police services that comes with a concentration on terrorism. The positive effect in Arab communities is attributed to the increased surveillance that is brought to communities that have ethnic, religious, and national relationships with groups that are associated with terrorism. At the same time, we discuss the ways in which higher clearance rates produced by higher surveillance of minority communities is likely to lead to lower evaluations of police legitimacy.

A Call for Authors

Proposals for the series may be submitted to the series editor or directly to – In the history of science, mathematics and mechanics have always been intertwined. Not only does the analysis of mechanical phenomena depend on the tools of mathematics, but since the time of Newton, Euler, and Lagrange, mechanicians have frequently developed revolutionary concepts and methods that precipitated important new advances in mathematics.

Policing Terrorism from the Perspective of the Arab Minority

While tense relationships often exists between police and minority groups, such relationships become even more vulnerable in situations where the police engage in counterterrorism and the minority group has ethnic, cultural, or national affiliation with the source of the terrorism threat. Using survey data, in this chapter we examine how Israeli Arabs perceive the counterterrorism function of the Israel National Police (INP) and its potential outcomes, and compare their responses to those of the majority Jewish population. Our data indicate that, as expected, Jewish respondents generally express more support for the counterterrorism function of the INP. At the same time, the differences are smaller than expected. Moreover, the data reveal that both Jews and Arabs are well aware of the social costs of police investment in counterterrorism: many believe that dealing with terrorism negatively affects the relationship between the police and the public, generally as well as specifically with the Arab sector, and most think that handling terrorism threats reduces the ability of the police to attend to “ordinary” crime control.

Introduction and Study Context

Since the terror attack of September 11, 2001, counterterrorism has become a major responsibility for police agencies in the Western world. This relatively new and unique task raises new problems and questions for democratic police agencies, yet most of what we know to date about the implications of policing terrorism, in terms of both crime-control and police-community relationships, is based on theoretical hypotheses and reasonable speculations. In this book we bring the first large-scale, multi-method study we are aware of, in which the effects of policing terrorism on police performance in “classic” areas of responsibility and on the relationship between the police and the public have been examined empirically. Our analyses focus specifically on Israel, because it is a setting that provides a unique opportunity to carry out such an examination. In this introductory chapter we discuss the importance of empirically assessing the implications of policing terrorism and the potential consequences of policing terrorism as understood to date. We also review the Israeli context for studying the outcomes of policing terrorism; the Israel National Police (INP), its history, structure, and model for policing terrorism; and our research questions and structure of the book.