The short-term and long-term impacts of the procedural justice training

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines the short- and long-term changes in officers' attitudes toward four elements of procedural justice (i.e. trustworthiness, respect, neutrality and voice) after a department-wide procedural justice training program.

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilized the pretest–posttest, single-group design to evaluate the training with two waves of officer surveys and conducted multivariate analyses to assess the factors that could have an impact on the training effects.

Findings

The training was effective in increasing officers' support for all four elements of procedural justice immediately, and the effects remained significant over 18 months. In addition, the analyses found that there were racial differences in officers' attitudes before and after the training, and the immediate supervisors' priority played an important role in the training effects.

Originality/value

There has been limited systematic research on police training. This study contributes to the understanding of how procedural justice training can help improve police-community relations and reduce the attitudinal differences between White officers and minority officers.

Citation

Dai, M., Hu, X., Thomas, L. and Kenter, R. (2020), "The short-term and long-term impacts of the procedural justice training", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 43 No. 5, pp. 689-705. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-06-2020-0087