Does Trust in Citizens Mediate the Relationship Between Internal and External Procedural Justice: A Comparison Between China and Taiwan Police

• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20946921
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X20946921

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2021, Vol. 65(4) 480 –497

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20946921

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Article

Does Trust in Citizens

Mediate the Relationship

Between Internal and

External Procedural Justice:

A Comparison Between

China and Taiwan Police

Ivan Y. Sun1, Jianhong Liu2, Yuning Wu3,

and Maarten Van Craen4

Abstract

This study investigates the roles of trust in citizens and compliance with agency

policies in mediating the direct and indirect relationships between internal procedural

justice and external procedural justice among Chinese and Taiwanese police officers.

Based on survey data collected from 1,253 police officers, this study comparatively

analyzes whether supervisory treatment of officers is predictive of trust in citizens

and willingness to follow agency policies, which in turn is linked to their willingness to

act fairly and justly toward citizens on the street. The results indicate that officer trust

in citizens mediates the relationship between internal and external procedural justice

in both China and Taiwan, but compliance with agency policies does not. Internal

procedural justice directly predicts external procedural justice among Taiwanese

officers, but such a connection is not found among Chinese officers. Implications for

future research and policy are discussed.

Keywords

internal procedural justice, trust in citizens, compliance with agency policies, external

procedural justice, Chinese police, Taiwanese police

1University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

2University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, China

3Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

4University of Leuven, Flanders, Belgium

Corresponding Author:

Ivan Y. Sun, University of Delaware, 18 Amstel Ave, Newark, DE 19716, USA.

Email: isun@udel.edu

946921IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X20946921International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologySun et al.

research-article2020

Sun et al. 481

Introduction

An increasing number of recent studies on policing have highlighted the importance of

exercising fair and just treatment toward rank and file within police organizations. This

vein of inquiry found that organizational justice is instrumental in generating greater job

satisfaction, trust in the public and compliance with rules and polices, lowering job turn-

over, and alleviating the influence of negative events on police officers (Bradford et al.,

2014; Carr & Maxwell, 2018; Haas et al., 2015; Nix & Wolfe, 2016; Rosenbaum &

McCarty, 2017; Tankebe, 2010; Wolfe & Nix, 2016; Wolfe et al., 2018). Extending the

same line of arguments, studies demonstrated a direct linkage between officers being

treated fairly and justly by their supervisors (i.e., internal procedural justice) and their

willingness to apply procedurally fair actions toward the citizenry (i.e., external proce-

dural justice) (Bradford & Quinton, 2014; Tankebe & Mesko, 2015; Trinkner et al.,

2016; Van Craen & Skogan, 2017; Wu et al., 2017). Other studies also showed that the

association between internal and external procedural justice was at least partially medi-

ated by officers’ emotional states and moral alignment with and trust in citizens (Kutajak

Ivkovic et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2018; Van Craen & Skogan, 2017; Wu et al., 2019).

This study comparatively assesses the linkage between internal and external proce-

dural justice and whether such a connection can be mediated by trust in citizens and

compliance with agency policies among Chinese and Taiwanese police officers. Based

on the “fair policing from the inside out” approach (Van Craen, 2016), we propose and

test a theoretical model (see Figure 1) that centers on the relationships among four key

concepts, including internal procedural justice, trust in citizens, compliance with

agency policies and external procedural justice. This article advances the criminologi-

cal literature by expanding our understandings about both the direct and indirect con-

nections between internal organizational treatment of officers and intended external

treatment of citizens in non-Western settings. Indeed, although a few recent studies

have investigated the consequences of procedural justice from both citizens’ and

police officers’ views (Liu & Liu, 2018; Sun et al., 2017, 2019; Wu et al., 2017), pro-

cedural justice remains an under-researched topic in Chinese societies. Our findings

are likely to reveal the applicability of Western-based theoretical frameworks in the

Chinese context where the political and legal traditions as well as the police systems

and police-community relations are different from Western democracies.

This study focuses on two largest Chinese societies in the world. Despite of sharing

some cultural traditions and commonalities in the police system, China and Taiwan

have become two separate political and economic identities since the late 1940s. China

has undergone drastic economic developments over the past few decades, but continues

to be a secretive and authoritarian regime where all aspects of social life are tightly

regulated. During the same period of time, Taiwan has successfully evolved from an

authoritarian society to a full democracy where political pluralism and democratic val-

ues have been firmly established. The two societies differ fundamentally in their politi-

cal systems, which could lead to variations in how internal and external procedural

justice are exercised by police officers in China and Taiwan. For example, one may

speculate that the connection between internal and external procedural justice is more

pronounced in Taiwan than in China because fairness and equality in interpersonal