Policing, procedural justice and prevention

Procedural justice is receiving increasing global attention both as a way of improving the legitimacy of policing and because styles of policing associated with procedural justice seem to be associated with improvements in community-police relations and reductions in crime. This chapter locates procedural justice theory within a broader framework of compliance theories, and summarises the main features of the theory. The authors have developed, refined and tested procedural justice theory in Europe and elsewhere, using the 2010 European Social Survey, and the chapter presents some key findings. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the practical and ethical issues in embedding principles of procedural justice in policing.