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Abstract
The procedural justice theory of police legitimacy has yet to fully consider the potential impacts of legal cynicism. The present study tests the hypothesis that cynicism mediates the justice–legitimacy relationship. Results of structural equation models support partial mediation. Procedural justice significantly reduced cynicism, while declines in cynicism promoted legitimacy. Cynicism should be incorporated into the theory of procedural justice and related empirical tests. Implications for police policy include the important role that process-based fairness plays in helping promote positive attitudes not merely toward police but toward society in general.
Notes
1. In these and all other models, two legitimacy items’ error terms were freed to correlate. Modification indices suggested similarity between ‘Police are generally honest’ and ‘Most officers do their job well,’ and these items evinced sufficient content overlap to justify freeing the error term. Model fit improved notably.
2. Removing the items ‘Politicians only care about getting re-elected’ and ‘Anyone can get ahead if they try hard enough [reversed]’ resulted in CFI = .945, RMSEA = .066, and SRMR = .077. There was no substantive change to the SEM model results, so the items were retained.