NCJ Number
229218
Journal
Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2009 Pages: 1265-1294
Date Published
November 2009
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This study explored whether, and to what extent, the Tylerian model (police procedural fairness as an explanation for public compliance with the law) could explain public willingness to cooperate with the police in Ghana.
Abstract
The findings show that the Sunshine-Tyler legitimacy scale combined two subscales that measured trustworthiness and obligation to obey police directives, lacks empirical validity in the Ghanaian context. In Ghana, people's expressions of obligation to obey police directives did not seem to have any statistically significant relationship with their views of police trustworthiness. The evidence presented in this study about the Sunshine-Tyler legitimacy scale suggests that it is crucial for procedural justice researchers to take the grounds for consent seriously to avoid a connection of police legitimacy and feelings of obligation to obey police directives. Tom R. Tyler and his colleagues explored several important dimensions of procedural justice. One of the many important features of Tylerian literature was strong evidence that assessments of police procedural fairness were powerful and independent explanations of public compliance with the law, lower rates of reoffending, and public willingness to empower and cooperate with legal authorities. The purpose of this study was to test the applicability of the Tylerian procedural justice arguments to Ghana, and explore what factors were more likely to shape public cooperation with the Ghana police using data collected from a general survey of Accra residents. Figure, tables, references, and appendix