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"Truly free consent"? clarifying the nature of police legitimacy using causal mediation analysis

Pósch, K; Jackson, J; Bradford, B; MacQueen, S; (2020) "Truly free consent"? clarifying the nature of police legitimacy using causal mediation analysis. Journal of Experimental Criminology 10.1007/s11292-020-09426-x. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

Objectives: To test whether normative and non-normative forms of obligation to obey the police are empirically distinct and to assess whether they exhibit different dynamics in terms of the downstream effects of police-citizen contact. Methods: Analysing data from the Scottish Community Engagement Trial of procedurally just policing, we use natural effect modelling for causally ordered mediators to assess causal pathways that include—but also extend beyond—the experimental treatment to procedural justice. Results: Normative and non-normative forms of obligation are empirically distinct. Normative obligation to obey the police is sensitive to procedurally just or unjust police behaviour, and influences cooperation with the police and traffic law compliance in a way that is consistent with procedural justice theory. Non-normative obligation to obey the police is ‘sticky’ and unresponsive. Conclusions: Legitimacy can resonably be defined partly as normative obligation with its expected beneficial downstream effects, so long as it is measured properly.

Type: Article
Title: "Truly free consent"? clarifying the nature of police legitimacy using causal mediation analysis
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1007/s11292-020-09426-x
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-020-09426-x
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Causal mediation analysis, Cooperation, Measurement, Obligation to obey the police, Police legitimacy, Procedural justice, Sense of power
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Security and Crime Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10093731
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