Corruption and Trust in Police: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Procedural Justice

This article examines the role of citizens' contact with police and their assessments of officers' corruption in police in India. More importantly, we examine whether police procedural justice moderates the relationship between citizens' assessments of police corruption and trust. Data (N = 845) from Delhi, India, suggest that consistent with the literature, citizens' trust in police is explained by their contact with police, fear of crime, police effectiveness, and corruption in police work. However, two significant findings emerged from this analysis. First, though citizens' perception of police corruption is a significant explanatory variable of trust in police, procedural justice moderates the strength of the relationship of corruption on trust. Second, the nature of contact experience reveals essential differences in the moderating effect of procedural justice on the relationship between corruption and trust in police. Finally, irrespective of the nature of contact experience, police effectiveness, and trust in police is related.