LEGITIMACY, PROCEDURAL JUSTICE and POLICE-CITIZEN ENCOUNTERS: A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Impact of Procedural Justice on Citizen Perceptions of the Police during Traffic Stops in Turkey (original) (raw)

Police-citizen encounters constitute the most basic aspect of policing, and the nature of these contacts has a subsequent influence on the perceptions of police legitimacy. The relevant literature on police legitimacy and procedural justice suggests that when police actions during police-citizen interactions are perceived as procedurally just, citizens view the police as legitimate and more likely to consent to their decisions (Sunshine & Tyler, 2003; Tyler & Fagan, 2008). Therefore, procedurally just policing could help police departments to foster voluntary deference, and that may impact citizen satisfaction at the same time. There is increasing scholarly interest in the topic of appropriate police conduct, procedural justice, legitimacy and police-citizen encounters. However, until very recently, there have been limited numbers of well-designed empirical research studies on these topics. From this perspective, this dissertation attempted to assess whether incorporating procedural justice principles into Turkish National Police stops would affect citizens’ views of the police, and a rigorous randomized controlled trial was conducted in Turkey for this purpose. A total of 702 drivers who were stopped by the Adana Police Department for speeding violations were randomly assigned to either the control or the treatment group. Subjects in the experimental group received the procedural justice policing intervention during these traffic stops, while subjects in the control group experienced business-as-usual traffic stops. The results of this study suggest that the perceptions of police in relation to the traffic stop encounters were influenced by the way in which police interacted with the citizens. Drivers who experienced the procedurally just traffic encounters reported improved perceptions of the police in relation to the encounters than citizens who experience routine traffic enforcement procedures. Furthermore, the drivers who took part in the experimental condition reported higher levels of satisfaction with their police treatment. However, the results indicated that a single procedurally just encounter does not have a striking impact on driver’s general views of the police. The findings of this research could be used to improve the interaction between police and citizens in Turkey. Additionally, the study may also generate new ideas for practitioners on how to behave towards drivers during traffic stops.