Mirage of Police Reform: Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy

by Robert E. Worden, Sarah J. McLean

Overview

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In the United States, the exercise of police authority—and the public’s trust that police authority is used properly—is a recurring concern. Contemporary prescriptions for police reform hold that the public would better trust the police and feel a greater obligation to comply and cooperate if police-citizen interactions were marked by higher levels of procedural justice by police.
 
In this book, Robert E. Worden and Sarah J. McLean argue that the procedural justice model of reform is a mirage. From a distance, procedural justice seemingly offers a relief from strained police-community relations. But a closer look at police organizations and police-citizen interactions shows that the relief offered by such reform is, in fact, illusory.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520292413
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	05/12/2017
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert E. Worden is Director of the John F. Finn Institute for Public Safety and Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University at Albany, SUNY.

Sarah J. McLean is Associate Director and Director of Research and Technical Assistance at the John F. Finn Institute for Public Safety.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables ix

Acknowledgments xi

1 The Procedural Justice Model as Reform 1

2 Police Departments as Institutionalized Organizations 14

3 Police Legitimacy 42

4 Procedural Justice in Citizens' Subjective Experiences 69

5 Citizens' Dissatisfaction in Their Own Words 88

6 Procedural Justice in Police Action 101

7 Citizens' Subjective Experience and Police Action 130

8 Procedural Justice and Management Accountability 149

9 Procedural Justice and Street-Level Sensemaking 166

10 Reflections on Police Reform 178

Methodological Appendix 197

Notes 209

References 217

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

"A vital addition to the literature."

Contemporary Sociology

"Mirage of Police Reform, by Worden and McLean, is a fresh and timely look at procedural justice, police legitimacy, and community trust... in a very significant way, [it moves] the discussion forward on police and community expectations in still volatile times."

International Criminal Justice Review

"This research is an exemplary demonstration of not only the power of what Morris Janowitz called the “engineering model” of social science research . . . but also of its limitations. Worden and McLean’s findings, some of them surprising, indicate why the procedural justice reform cannot make much difference."

American Journal of Sociology