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Citizens' Perceptions of Distributive and Procedural Injustice During Traffic Stops with Police

NCJ Number
212366
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 42 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2005 Pages: 445-481
Author(s)
Robin Shepard Engel
Date Published
November 2005
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This study explored citizens’ normative and instrumental perceptions of injustice after traffic stops by police.
Abstract
Previous research has suggested that citizens’ perceptions of justice and injustice are based on normative rather than instrumental factors. Normative factors include perceptions of equity and fairness while instrumental factors include the outcomes received from the citizen-police interaction. The current research tests the hypothesis that citizens’ perceptions of injustice following traffic stops by police are based on normative factors of equity and fairness rather than on instrumental factors regarding the outcome of the traffic stop. Data were drawn from the Bureau of Justice Statistics-sponsored Police Public Contact Survey, which was administered to a national sample of citizens in 1999; data analyzed for this study included the responses of 7,054 drivers who were stopped by police. Results of multinomial logistic regression analysis support the hypothesis that normative factors such as perceived fairness are more influential on citizens’ perceptions of justice and injustice than is the instrumental factor of traffic stop outcome. The findings also revealed significant differences in citizens’ perceptions of injustice by race. Future research should focus on the influence of community characteristics on citizens’ attitudes on satisfaction toward police. Tables, notes, references