Procedural Justice

This intervention involves officers wearing cameras on their uniforms to increase citizens’ intentions to comply with police and improve their perceptions of police during traffic stops. The program is rated Promising. Drivers who encountered officers with cameras had statistically significant increases in both compliance and cooperation with officers and improved perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy, compared with drivers who encountered officers not wearing cameras. 

This is a focused deterrence police strategy that was designed to reduce gang- and group-related violence in Detroit, Mich. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences found for weapons arrests or shooting victimizations for participants in two age groups (15–24 and 25–34). The program did show a statistically significant reduction in all arrests and violent arrests for individuals who attended the Detroit Ceasefire call-in meetings.

This is a parole-based, focused deterrence intervention. The goal of the program is to reduce community-level firearm violence. The program is rated Effective. The intervention was associated with statistically significant reductions in measures of total gun violence, total non-gun violence, and total violence, compared with the synthetic control group.

This is a procedural justice checklist for counterterrorism police officers working in ports of travel in a European country to use when questioning people suspected of terrorism. The program is rated Effective. People interviewed by officers using the checklist reported a statistically significantly greater view of distributive justice, effectiveness of police, obligation to obey the law, and willingness to cooperate with the police, compared with people interviewed by control group officers.

This program equips police with on-officer cameras to record contacts with civilians. The program is rated Promising. Body-worn camera use resulted in statistically significant decreases in citizen complaints, and there were mixed results regarding camera use on arrest rates. There were no statistically significant differences in citizen resistance. There was a statistically significant increase in use of force, and less proactive, officer-initiated contact.

This is a police training to develop officers’ decision-making, de-escalation, empathy, rapport-building, and self-control skills to discourage use of force in interactions with citizens. The program is rated No Effects. There was a statistically significant increase in procedural justice priorities posttraining in the treatment group, compared with the control group, but there were no statistically significant effects on maintaining self-control, physical control priorities, or use of force.

This is a brief policing intervention for improving public attitudes toward police, through positive nonenforcement police contact. The program is rated Promising. Compared with control residents, intervention household residents reported statistically significant improvements in attitudes toward police and more positive perceptions of police performance and legitimacy and greater willingness to cooperate with police. But there was no statistically significant effect on compliance with police.

This program was designed to “slow down” police officers’ thought processes during encounters with citizens. The program is rated No Effects. At the 6-week follow-up, treatment group officers were statistically significantly less likely to be involved in an incident in which physical force was used, but there were no statistically significant differences on the fraction of incidents that resulted in an arrest, the number of citizen complaints filed against the officer, and other outcomes.

This intervention used two hot spots policing strategies (problem solving and directed patrol) to improve citizens’ perceptions of police in St. Louis, Mo. The program is rated No Effects. Although residents in both treatment groups reported a statistically significant increase in cooperation with the police, the preponderance of evidence suggests that the intervention had no significant impact on citizens’ perceptions of procedural justice, police legitimacy, or police abuse.

This program aims to improve police officers’ forensic evidence-collection techniques at burglary crime scenes to increase solved burglaries. The program also intends to improve police–victim and police–witness interactions at burglary crime scenes. The program is rated Promising. Results showed a statistically significant increase in solved burglary cases.

The program involved incorporating elements of procedural justice into traffic stops in Adana, Turkey, to test whether procedural justice improves citizens’ perceptions of the police and the law. The program is rated No Effects. No statistically significant differences were found between the treatment and control groups on general perceptions of the police, but the study did find statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups in encounter-specific perceptions.

This experiment tested the effects of sending monthly reminder letters to persons on probation to pay restitution. The program is rated Promising. Persons on probation who received letters with only basic information paid statistically significant greater amounts and made a greater number of monthly payments, compared with people on probation who received no letters. However, there was no statistically significant difference between people on probation who received other types of letters and tho

This is a problem-solving court program that seeks to divert mentally ill adults who committed misdemeanor and felony offenses out of the justice system and into treatment to address their mental health issues and reduce their risk of recidivism. The program is rated No Effects. There was no statistically significant effect on rearrests or reconvictions for treatment group participants, compared with similar individuals with a mental disorder in jail, at the 30-month follow-up.

This is a problem-solving community court that seeks to prevent crime. One component of the program, the Criminal Court, hears misdemeanor cases and seeks to provide quick and meaningful sanctions to defendants in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The program was rated Promising. The program had a statistically significant impact on recidivism rates for defendants.

The program tested whether police use of a specialized script (based on principles of procedural justice) during random breath-test traffic stops could improve perceptions of police and change people’s views about drinking and driving. The program is rated Promising. The program was shown to have a statistically significant effect on changing views on police and on drinking and driving, on increasing satisfaction and compliance with police, and on strengthening perceptions of procedural justice.

A problem-oriented policing strategy that aims to combat drug markets and the problems associated with them, in a high- crime neighborhood, through a deterrence-based, pulling levers framework. The program is rated Promising. The program was shown to significantly reduce nonviolent offenses in the target area, but not violent offenses.

A problem-oriented policing program that aims to eliminate overt drug markets and the problems associated with them through a deterrence-based, pulling-levers framework. The program is rated Effective. The Intervention had a statistically significant impact on reducing violent incidents in the target areas.

This program was designed to provide judicial monitoring of people convicted of domestic violence through frequent court appearances before a judge. The goal was to ensure compliance with program requirements and deter future violence and re-abuse of victims. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention group and control group in rearrests, attendance at court-ordered programs, or completion of programs.

This is a restorative justice program that uses conferencing to repair the harm. The program is rated Promising. Participants had a statistically significant lower likelihood of committing violent offenses, and a greater likelihood of reporting a belief in the law, negative attitude toward reoffending, and greater effort to not drive drunk, compared with the control group. There were mixed findings in the rate of drunk driving, and no difference in property crimes, shoplifting, or recidivism.

This program was designed to reduce failure-to-appear rates in misdemeanor defendants. The goal was to remind defendants of court dates by sending reminder notices through the mail. The program is rated Promising. Defendants who received court date reminder notices had statistically significant reductions in failure-to-appear rates, compared with participants in the control group who did not receive notices.

This is a community supervision strategy for substance-abusing probationers, particularly those who have long histories of drug use and involvement with the criminal justice system and are considered at high risk of failing probation or returning to prison. The program is rated Promising. Participants were less likely to miss appointments with probation officers, use drugs, and be arrested, compared with the control group. These differences were statistically significant.