Hostname: page-component-669899f699-2mbcq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-27T02:38:11.382Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do Fair Procedures Matter? The Effect of Procedural Justice on Spouse Assault

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Raymond Paternoster ,
Ronet Bachman ,
Robert Brame  and
Lawrence W. Sherman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In a reanalysis of the Milwaukee Domestic Violence Experiment, we examine whether the use of fair procedures on the part of police officers called to the scene of a domestic assault inhibits subsequent assault. Consistent with expectations, we found that procedural justice did suppress subsequent violence, even in the face of adverse outcomes. When police acted in a procedurally fair manner when arresting assault suspects, the rate of subsequent domestic violence was significantly lower than when they did not. Moreover, suspects who were arrested and perceived that they were treated in a procedurally fair manner had subsequent assault rates that were as low as those suspects given a more favorable outcome (warned and then released without arrest). The suppression effect of procedural justice did not depend on the personal characteristics of suspects.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , 1997 , pp. 163 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

This article was prepared under grant No. 96-IJ-C X-0058 from the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official positions or policies of the Department of justice. The authors would like to thank E. Allan Lind and the reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

References

Agnew, Robert (1992) “Foundation for a General Strain Theory of Crime and Delinquency,” 30 Criminology 47–87.Google Scholar
Bachman, Ronet, & Saltzman, Linda E. (1995) Violence against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs.Google Scholar
Berk, Richard A., Campbell, Alec, Klap, Ruth, & Western, Bruce (1992a) “Bayesian Analysis of the Colorado Springs Spouse Abuse Experiment,” 83 J. of Criminal Law & Criminology 170–200.Google Scholar
Berk, Richard A., Campbell, Alec, Klap, Ruth, & Western, Bruce (1992b) “The Deterrent Effect of Arrest in Incidents of Domestic Violence: A Bayesian Analysis of Four Field Experiment,” 57 American Sociological Rev. 698–708.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John (1989) Crime, Shame and Reintegration. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, A. Colin, & Trivedi, Pravin K. (1986) “Econometric Models Based on Count Data: Comparisons and Applications of Some Estimators and Tests,” 1 (1) J. of Applied Econometrics 29–53.Google Scholar
Casper, Jonathan D., Tyler, Tom R., & Fisher, Bonnie (1988) “Procedural Justice in Felony Cases,” 22 Law & Society Rev. 483–507.Google Scholar
Cohen, Jacob, & Cohen, Patricia (1983) Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavior Sciences. 2d ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Dunford, Franklyn W. (1990) “System-Initiated Warrants for Suspects of Misdemeanor Domestic Assault: A Pilot Study,” 7 Justice Q. 631–53.Google Scholar
Dunford, Franklyn W., Huizinga, David, & Elliott, Delbert S. (1990) “The Role of Arrest in Domestic Assault: The Omaha Police Experiment,” 28 Criminology 183–206.Google Scholar
Dutton, Donald G., & Hemphill, Kenneth J. (1992) “Patterns of Socially Desirable Responding among Perpetrators and Victims of Wife Assault,” 7 Violence & Victims 29–39.Google Scholar
Efron, Bradley (1994) “Missing Data, Imputation, and the Bootstrap,” 89 J. of the American Statistical Association 463–75.Google Scholar
Folger, Robert (1977) “Distributive and Procedural Justice: Combined Impact of ‘Voice’ and Improvement on Experienced Inequity,” 35 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 108–19.Google Scholar
Gardner, William, Mulvey, Edward P., & Shaw, Esther C. (1995) “Regression Analyses of Counts and Rates: Poisson, Overdispersed Poisson, and Negative Binomial Models,” 118 Psychological Bull. 392–404.Google Scholar
Garner, Joel, Fagan, Jeffrey, & Maxwell, Christopher (1995) “Published Findings from the Spousal Assault Replication Program: A Critical Review,” 11 J. of Quantitative Criminology 3–28.Google Scholar
Hastings, James E., & Hamberger, L. Kevin (1988) “Personality Characteristics of Spouse Abusers: A Controlled Comparison,” 3 Violence & Victims 31–48.Google Scholar
Heitjan, Daniel F., & Little, Roderick J. A. (1991) “Multiple Imputation for the Fatal Accident Reporting System,” 40 (1) Applied Statistics 13–29.Google Scholar
Herzog, Thomas N., & Rubin, Donald B. (1983) “Using Multiple Imputations to Handle Nonresponse in Sample Surveys,” in Madow, W. G., Olkin, I., & Rubin, D. B., eds., Incomplete Data in Sample Surveys, Vol. 2: Theory and Bibliographies. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hirschel, J. David, Hutchison, Ira W. III, & Dean, Charles W. (1992a) “The Failure of Arrest to Deter Spouse Abuse,” 29 J. of Research in Crime & Delinquency 7–33.Google Scholar
Hirschel, J. David, Hutchison, Ira W. III, & Dean, Charles W. (1992b) “Female Spouse Abuse and the Police Response: The Charlotte, North Carolina Experiment,” 83 J. of Criminal Law & Criminology 73–119.Google Scholar
Hirschi, Travis (1969) Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. (1970) Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Huo, Yuen J., Smith, Heather J., Tyler, Tom R., & Lind, E. Allan (1996) “Superordinate Identification, Subgroup Identification, and Justice Concerns: Is Separatism the Problem; Is Assimilation the Answer?” 7 Psychological Science 40–45.Google Scholar
King, Gary (1989) “Event Count Models for International Relations: Generalizations and Applications,” 33 International Studies Q. 123–47.Google Scholar
Lawless, Jerald F. (1987) “Negative Binomial and Mixed Poisson Regression,” 15 (3) Canadian J. of Statistics 209–25.Google Scholar
Lemert, Edwin McCarthy (1951) Social Pathology: A Systematic Approach to the Theory of Sociopathic Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Leventhal, Gerald S. (1976) “Fairness in Social Relationships,” in Thibaut, J., Spense, J. T., & Carson, R. C., eds., Contemporary Topics in Social Psychology. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.Google Scholar
Leventhal, Gerald S. (1980) “What Should Be Done with Equity Theory,” in Gergen, K. J., Greenberg, M. S., & Weiss, R. H., eds., Social Exchange: Advances in Theory and Research. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Lind, E. Allan (1982) “The Psychology of Courtroom Procedure,” in Kerr, N. L. and Bray, R. M., eds., The Psychology of the Courtroom. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lind, E. Allan, & Tyler, and Tom (1988) The Social Psychology of Procedural Justice. New York: Plenum Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lind, E. Allan, Kanfer, Ruth, & Earley, P. Christopher (1990) “Voice, Control, and Procedural Justice: Instrumental and Noninstrumental Concerns in Fairness Judgments,” 59 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 952–59.Google Scholar
Lind, E. Allan, Kulik, Carol T., Amrose, Maureen, & de Vera Park, Maria v. (1993) “Individual and Corporate Dispute Resolution: Using Procedural Fairness as a Decision Heuristic,” 38 Administrative Science Q. 224–51.Google Scholar
Lind, E. Allan, Kurtz, Susan, Musante, Linda, Walker, Laurens, & Thibaut, John W. (1980) “Procedure and Outcome Effects on Reactions to Adjudicated Resolutions of Conflicts of Interest,” 39 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 643–53.Google Scholar
Lindgren, B. W., McElrath, G. W., & Berry, D. A. (1978) Introduction to Probability Statistics. New York; MacMillan Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Lindsey, James K. (1995) Modelling Frequency and Count Data. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Little, Roderick J. A. (1992) “Regression with Missing X's: A Review,” 87 J. of the American Statistical Association 1227–37.Google Scholar
Little, Roderick J. A., & Rubin, Donald B. (1987) Statistical Analysis with Missing Data. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Little, Roderick J. A., & Schenker, Nathaniel (1995) “Missing Data,” in Arminger, G., Clogg, C. C., & Sobel, M. E., eds., Handbook of Statistical Modeling for the Social and Behavioral Sciences. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
MacCoun, Robert J., Lind, E. Allan, Hensler, Deborah R., Bryant, David L, & Ebener, Patricia A. (1988) “Alternative Adjudication: An Evaluation of the New Jersey Automobile Arbitration Program.” Santa Monica, CA: Institute for Civil Justice, RAND Corporation.Google Scholar
Maddala, G. S. (1983) Limited-Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maltz, Michael D. (1996) “From Poisson to the Present: Applying Operations Research to Problems of Crime and Justice,” 12 J. of Quantitative Criminology 3–61.Google Scholar
Marciniak, Elizabeth Marie (1994) “Community Policing of Domestic Violence: Neighborhood Differences in the Effect of Arrest.” Unpub. Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Maryland, College Park.Google Scholar
McEwen, Craig A., & Maiman, Richard (1984) “Mediation in Small Claims Court: Achieving Compliance through Consent,” 18 Law & Society Rev. 11–49.Google Scholar
Mullahy, John (1986) “Specification and Testing of Some Modified Count Data Models,” 33 J. of Econometrics 341–65.Google Scholar
Nagin, Daniel S., & Paternoster, Raymond (1991) “On the Relationship of Past and Future Participation in Delinquency,” 29 Criminology 163–89.Google Scholar
Pate, Anthony M., & Hamilton, Edwin E. (1992) “Formal and Informal Deterrents to Domestic Violence: The Dade County Spouse Assault Experiment,” 57 American Sociological Rev. 691–97.Google Scholar
Paternoster, Raymond, & Iovanni, Leeann (1989) “The Labeling Perspective and Delinquency: An Elaboration of the Theory and Assessment of the Evidence,” 6 Justice Q. 359–94.Google Scholar
Pohlmeier, Winfried, & Ulrich, Volker (1995) “An Econometric Model of the Two-Part Decisionmaking Process in the Demand for Health Care,” 30 J. of Human Resources 339–61.Google Scholar
Rubin, Donald B., & Schenker, Nathaniel (1986) “Multiple Imputation for Interval Estimation from Simple Random Samples with Ignorable Nonresponse,” 81 J. of the American Statistical Association 366–74.Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J., & Laub, John H. (1993) Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points through Life. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SAS Institute (1991) SAS Language and Procedures: Usage 2, Version 6. 1st ed. Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc.Google Scholar
SAS Institute (1993) SAS Technical Report P-243. SAS/STAT Software: The GENMOD Procedure.. Cary, NC: SAS Institute, Inc.Google Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence W. (1992) Policing Domestic Violence. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence W. (1993) “Defiance, Deterrence, and Irrelevance: A Theory of the Criminal Sanction,” 30 J. of Research in Crime & Delinquency 445–73.Google Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence W., & Berk, Richard A. (1984a) “The Specific Deterrent Effects of Arrest for Domestic Assault,” 49 American Sociological Rev. 261–72.Google Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence W., & Berk, Richard A. (1984b) The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment. Washington: Police Foundation.Google Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence W., & Cohn, Ellen G. (1989) “The Impact of Research on Legal Policy: The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment,” 23 Law & Society Rev. 117–44.Google Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence W., & Smith, Douglas A., with Schmidt, Janell D., & Rogan, Dennis P. (1992) “Crime, Punishment, and Stake in Conformity: Legal and Informal Control of Domestic Violence,” 57 American Sociological Rev. 680–90.Google Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence W., Schmidt, Janell D., Rogan, Dennis P., Smith, D. A., Gartin, Patrick R., Cohn, Ellen G., Collins, Dean J., & Bacich, Anthony R. (1991) “From Initial Deterrence to Long-Term Escalation: The Effects of Short-Custody Arrest for Poverty-Ghetto Domestic Violence,” 29 Criminology 821–50.Google Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence W., Schmidt, Janell D., Rogan, Dennis P., Smith, D. A., Gartin, Patrick R., Cohn, Ellen G., Collins, Dean J., & Bacich, Anthony R. (1992) “The Variable Effects of Arrest on Crime Control: The Milwaukee Domestic Violence Experiment,” 83 J. of Criminal Law & Criminology 137–69.Google Scholar
Smith, Heather J., & Tyler, Tom R. (1996) “Justice and Power: When Will Justice Concerns Encourage the Advantaged to Support Policies Which Redistribute Economic Resources and the Disadvantaged to Willingly Obey the Law?” 26 European J. of Social Psychology 171–200.Google Scholar
Straus, Murray A., Gelles, Richard J., & Smith, Christine (1990) Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Thibaut, John W., & Walker, Laurens (1975) Procedural Justice: A Psychological Analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Thibaut, John W., & Walker, Laurens (1978) “A Theory of Procedure,” 66 California Law Rev. 541–66.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1984) “The Role of Perceived Injustice in Defendant's Evaluation of Their Courtroom Experience,” 18 Law & Society Rev. 51–74.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1990) Why People Obey the Law. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Lind, E. Allan (1992) “A Relational Model of Authority in Groups,” 25 Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 115–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom, Rasinski, Kenneth, & Griffin, Eugene (1986) “Alternative Images of the Citizen: Implications for Public Policy,” 41 American Psychologist 970–78.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., Rasinski, Kenneth A., & Spodick, Nancy (1985) “The Influence of Voice on Satisfaction with Leaders: Exploring the Meaning of Process Control,” 48 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 72–81.Google Scholar