ABSTRACT

Paramount to effective public safety and perception of the police is the public’s experiences. Looking through the lens of procedural justice, we examine implications of citizen-gender perceptions during police interactions. We expect that, despite invariant implementation of procedural justice, public perceptions will vary depending on both officer and respondent gender. We use a 2 × 2 factorial vignette design to measure the relationship between officers’ behavior as consistent or inconsistent with procedural justice and respondent attitudes toward those behaviors. Respondents’ (N = 1028) perceptions were measured based on antagonistic feelings, positive personal qualities, fear, and respect. Results reflect expectations; female officers are perceived differently than male officers despite invariant levels of procedural justice implementation in three out of four categories (excluding respect). Results strengthen the existing body of work concerning the significance of procedural justice and add to the growing understanding of the effects of gender perceptions in the sphere of law enforcement.

摘要

公众的经验对于有效的公共安全和对警察的看法至关重要。通过程序正义的视角，我们研究了警察互动过程中公民-性别认知的影响。我们预计，尽管程序正义的实施不变，但公众的看法会因官员和受访者的性别而异。我们使用 2 × 2 因子小插曲设计来衡量官员的行为与程序正义是否一致与受访者对这些行为的态度之间的关系。受访者 (N = 1028) 的看法是根据敌对情绪、积极的个人品质、恐惧和尊重来衡量的。结果反映预期；尽管四分之三的程序正义执行水平不变（不包括尊重），但对女性军官的看法与男性军官不同。结果加强了有关程序正义重要性的现有工作，并增加了对执法领域中性别观念影响的理解。