Procedural Justice and the Unintended Role of Street-Level Bureaucrats in Prompting Citizens to Act as Vigilantes

• Author: Ofek Edri-Peer,Nissim Cohen
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/02750740221148192
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Date: 01 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Procedural Justice and the Unintended

Role of Street-Level Bureaucrats in

Prompting Citizens to Act as Vigilantes

Ofek Edri-Peer and Nissim Cohen

Abstract

What role do the perceptions of clients about the procedural justice that street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) use when implement-

ing policy play in prompting citizens to engage in vigilante actions? Using qualitative methods, we examine the unintended

effects of SLBs’implementation of policy on citizens’vigilantism. We contribute to the literature by showing that procedural

justice on the street level is in fact an important factor in citizens’decisions to act as vigilantes. Our f‌indings identif‌ied three

signif‌icant factors in these decisions: the citizens’ability to voice their complaint, the sense that they were treated respectfully

and their trust that the police off‌icers would do what they could to deal with the ir complaint. Furthermore, we also dem-

onstrated that citizens and SLBs do not share the same perceptions of the role of the police as service providers, and that

this gap increases citizens’motivations to act independently.

Keywords

street-level bureaucrats, procedural justice, vigilantism, police

Introduction

The social order depends on the general consent and coopera-

tion of its members (Lipsky, 2010). However, in various cases,

individuals and groups challenge this order by engaging in vig-

ilante activities (Kirkpatrick, 2008). Vigilantism is an illegal

activity carried out by a private citizen in response to a criminal

activity committed by another private citizen against that perpe-

trator(Haasetal.,2012).Itisusedasameansofnarrowingthe

perceived gap between the distributive justice one desires and

the actual result in order to restore one’s sense of justice

(Exline et al., 2003). Are distributive justice and policy out-

comes the only elements that explain why people engage in

vigilantism? Is it possible that how the policy is implemented,

not just its results, also inf‌luence vigilante behavior? Indeed,

several studies show that procedural justice in the process of

allocating public goods is particularly important in examining

the interaction between citizens and service providers

(Mentovich et al., 2020). Previous research has also demon-

strated the possible effect of procedural justice on supporting

vigilantism but not necessarily acting on it (see Koster, 2020;

Tankebe, 2009). Nevertheless, the factors that lead people to

act as vigilantes remain unstudied. Thus, to better understand

vigilantism, we must focus on day-to-day interactions

between citizens and those who implement policy. To accom-

plish this goal, we investigated the specif‌ic impact of citizens’

interactions with street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) on the

former’s decision to take matters into their own hands.

Procedural justice is particularly salient in the day-to-day

interactions between citizens and SLBs (Durnescu &

Poledna, 2020; Portillo & Rudes, 2014), yet the literature

linking the two is inadequate. Studies that do document the

importance of procedural justice among SLBs in various gov-

ernment institutions, especially in law enforcement agencies

(Skogan, 2006), reinforce the need to understand their impact

on citizens, due to their role in enforcing compliance.

Regardless of the written policy, how SLBs use procedural

justice when implementing policy might affect citizens’

behavior. Thus, the role of SLBs is important not only

because of their inf‌luence on policy outcomes, but also

because the way they implement policy may prompt citizens

to engage in vigilante activities.

The question that underlies this study is: What role do the

perceptions of clients about the procedural justice that SLBs

use when implementing policy play in prompting citizens to

engage in vigilante actions? This study seeks to understand

the possible inf‌luence of SLBs’perceptions and behavior

on the emergence of vigilantism.

The Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Political

Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Ofek Edri‐Peer,The Department of Public Administration and Policy, School

of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.

Email: ofekedri@gmail.com

Article

American Review of Public Administration

2023, Vol. 53(2) 51–63

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/02750740221148192

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