An Exploratory Study on the Practice of Procedural Justice and Use of Force in Police-Citizen Encounters

Authors

Charles Cunha, Cal State University-Fullerton

Abstract

"Procedural justice is a philosophy and theory demonstrating that the practice of its four principles improves police-community relations. This means that citizens view law enforcement as a legitimate entity of government. Much controversy has stemmed from alleged unlawful killings of suspects in the past decade. These incidents question whether law enforcement acted legitimately. Since then, scholars have researched training in using the four principles of procedural justice. They have also researched the use of procedural justice in police-citizen encounters. The current research study addresses law enforcement officers’ perspectives on the use of force and the use of the four principles of procedural justice. The research focuses on the following question: What are law enforcement officers’ opinions, thoughts, and experiences on using force and procedural justice in police-citizen encounters? The current study uses a thematic analysis of officers’ interviews to answer questions about the four principles of procedural justice and using force. Data on the use of force and the four principles of procedural justice was collected from a literature review on procedural justice, law enforcement officer interviews, departmental training curriculum, and policies and procedures. The thematic analysis focuses on law enforcement officers’ perspectives on using procedural justice in the context of the use of force."

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Cunha, Charles (2025) "An Exploratory Study on the Practice of Procedural Justice and Use of Force in Police-Citizen Encounters," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 14: No. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol14/iss1/5