Linking supervisory procedural accountability to officer procedural accountability in Chinese policing

ABSTRACT

An important yet severely understudied issue in the procedural justice literature involves the linkage between supervisory procedural accountability within a police agency and officer procedural accountability on the street. Relying on the survey data collected from more than 700 police officers in a large Chinese city, this study finds that the effect of supervisory procedural accountability on officer procedural accountability is principally indirect through the mediating factors of officer satisfaction with job and morale, net of several control variables. Noticeably, surveyed officers report only moderate levels of procedural accountability delivered by their supervisors, and even lower levels of accountability that they themselves are willing to render to the public. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese policing
• procedural justice
• police accountability
• general strain theory
• learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.