Study Finds Procedural Justice Training Improves Police Behavior
The multi-year study seems to confirm that it is possible to simultaneously reduce crime and improve police-community relationships through the application of procedural justice principles to policing.
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A recent study by scientists at the National Policing Institute, George Mason University, Arizona State University, and the University of Pennsylvania has produced evidence that training officers to operate according to the principles of procedural justice changed officer behavior, reduced arrests, improved community perceptions of the police, and reduced crime, reports Phys.org.
The multi-year study, a randomized controlled trial conducted in high-crime places (or “hot spots”) in Tucson, Arizona, Houston, Texas, and Cambridge, Mass., seems to confirm that it is possible to simultaneously reduce crime and improve police-community relationships through improved training and supervision.
Procedural justice is based on four components of fairness and equality: giving people a voice, showing neutrality, treating people with respect, and showing trustworthy motives. Observations of officer-community interactions found that trained officers were significantly more likely to behave in procedurally just ways.
“This research shows that public safety and policing that is respectful of all community members are interconnected goals,” said Walter Katz, Vice President of Criminal Justice at Arnold Ventures, which supported the project alongside the National Policing Institute.
“Police departments across the country should learn from these results and require high-quality procedural justice training as a core component of any hot spot crime reduction program.”
