Shaping Police Officer Mindsets and Behaviors: Experimental Evidence of Procedural Justice Training

Rodrigo Canales (), Juan Francisco Santini (), Marina González Magaña () and Alexis Cherem ()
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Rodrigo Canales: Questrom School of Business, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
Juan Francisco Santini: Development Impact (DIME) Group, World Bank, Washington, District of Columbia 20433
Marina González Magaña: Independent researcher
Alexis Cherem: Independent researcher

Management Science, 2025, vol. 71, issue 11, 8995-9013

Abstract: Research on organizational justice shows that perceptions of justice by internal and external agents are reliable predictors of key organizational outcomes. But how can we promote the enactment of fair behavior by those with decision-making authority within organizations? This is particularly important for organizations that depend on frequent client interactions, in which individual discretion is required to make consequential decisions, and where necessary evils are unavoidable. Few organizations face this challenge as intensely as police forces, in which misconduct and bad decisions by their street-level bureaucrats can have large negative consequences. This paper analyzes whether police officers can be trained to effectively incorporate the principles of procedural justice in their interactions with citizens. In collaboration with the Mexico City police, we implemented a randomized controlled trial with 1,854 officers to measure whether procedural justice training changed their perceptions of policing and actual behavior on the field. We find significant and positive effects of the training across all measures of the procedural justice model. Our research yields insights into critical elements to consider in organizational training programs, including managerial alignment with the objectives of the training and a consideration of employees’ perceptions of the extent to which their work is understood by others.

Keywords: judicial-legal; crime prevention; law; organizational studies; behavior; training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:71:y:2025:i:11:p:8995-9013

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