Perceived deservingness of procedurally (un)just treatment: experimental evidence of minority perceptions of vicarious police-citizen interactions

Figures & data

Table 1. Factor loadings for principal Axis factor analysis with varimax rotation of identity scales.

Scale	Factor 1	Factor 2
Muslim Identity
I am proud to be Muslim	.83	.07
I identify strongly as a Muslim	.88	.07
Being a Muslim is important to the way I think of myself as a person	.81	.04
Identification with Police
I identify strongly with police	.04	.88
I feel a sense of solidarity with police	.07	.94
Police and Muslims share a lot in common	.07	.75
Eigenvalues before rotation	2.75	2.14
% of variance	45.82	35.71

Note: Factor loadings >0.30 are in boldface. Varimax rotation used.

Table 2. Correlation Matrix and descriptive statistics for all measures.

	Items	Mean (SD)	%	Cronbach’s alpha (α)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1. Deservingness of Treatment	1	2.74 (1.47)	–	–	1
2. Officer behavior in the vignette scenario (0 = disrespectful)	1	–	50.2	–	.57***	1
3. Citizen behavior in the vignette scenario (0 = disrespectful)	1	–	49.8	–	−.05	.00	1
4. Identification with Police	3	3.59 (1.04)	–	.89	.25***	−.05	−.03	1
5. Muslim Identification	3	4.71 (.63)	–	.87	.01	−.01	.05	.12**	1
6. Age	1	33.94 (13.21)	–	–	.04	–.11*	−.13**	.16***	−.03	1
7. Gender (0 = male)	1	–	50.2	–	.02	.05	−.09*	−.08	−.09	−.19***	1
8. Educational attainment	1	5.38 (1.81)	–	–	.02	−.03	.04	.07	−.07	−.10*	.01	1
9. Country of birth (0 = Australian-born)	1	–	49.8	–	.02	−.11*	−.11*	.14**	−.06	.58***	−.26***	−.01	1
10. Marital status (0 = married)	1	–	50.8	–	.01	.06	−.03	−.07	−.01	−.41***	.22***	−.08	−.32***	1

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics for split sample.

	Procedurally unjust police behavior sample			Procedurally just police behavior sample
	Mean (SD)	%	Cronbach’s alpha (α)	Mean (SD)	%	Cronbach’s alpha (α)
1. Deservingness of Treatment	1.91 (1.12)	–	–	3.58 (1.29)	–	–
2. Citizen behavior in the vignette scenario	.50 (.50)	50.0	–	.50 (.50)	50.4	–
3. Identification with Police	3.63 (1.04)	–	.88	3.53 (1.04)	–	.90
4. Muslim Identification	4.72 (0.63)	–	.84	4.71 (.62)	–	.90

Table 4. OLS regression predicting citizen’s deservingness of police treatment received.

	Procedurally unjust police behavior sample							Procedurally just police behavior sample
	Block 1			Block 2			Effect size	Block 1			Block 2			Effect size
	B(SE)	β	95% CI	B(SE)	β	95% CI	f^2	B(SE)	β	95% CI	B(SE)	β	95% CI	f^2
Citizen behavior (ref = disrespectful)	−.51*** (.14)	−.23	−.78, −.25	−.51*** (.13)	−.23	−.76, −.25	.05	.27 (.15)	.11	−.01, .56	.28 (.15)	.58	−.01, .56	.01
Identification with Police	.20** (.07)	.19	.07, .33	.25*** (.06)	.23	.12, .37	.05	.58*** (.07)	.47	.44, .71	.59*** (.07)	.40	.45, .73	.28
Muslim Identification	−.07 (.11)	−.04	−.29, .14	−.05 (.10)	−.03	−.25, .16	.00	−.06 (.12)	−.03	−.29, .18	−.13 (.13)	.05	−.38, .12	.00
Citizen behavior × Identity with Police				−.65*** (.13)	−.30	−.90, −.40	.10				.11 (.14)	.04	−.17, .38	.00
Citizen behavior × Identity with Muslims				−.15 (.21)	−.04	−.56, .25	.00				−.38 (.25)	−.09	−.88, .11	.00
Constant	1.91*** (.07)		1.77, 2.04	1.89*** (.06)		1.76, 2.02		3.58*** (.07)		3.44, 3.73	3.59*** (.07)		3.45, 3.74
R^2	.09			.19				.23			.22
Adjusted R^2	.08			.17				.23			.22
F Change (df)	8.50*** (3, 250)			14.05*** (2, 248)				23.90*** (3, 246)			1.30 (2, 244)

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Figure 1. Interaction effects between: (a) ‘citizen behavior’ × ‘Muslim identity’ or (b) ‘citizen behavior’ × ‘identification with police’ on perceived deservingness of police treatment, when the police officer was procedurally unjust.

Figure 2. Interaction effects between: (a) ‘citizen behavior’ × ‘Muslim identity’ or (b) ‘citizen behavior’ × ‘identification with police’ on perceived deservingness of police treatment, when the police officer was procedurally just.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the second author, Kristina Murphy, upon reasonable request.