Police legitimacy through procedural justice: examining the dual mediating role of institutional trust and obligation to obey

Purpose The procedural justice theory of police legitimacy has been examined extensively by previous scholars; yet more expansion of the legitimacy literature is warranted. Specifically, the current study examines the effects of institutional trust and obligation to obey as mediators between procedural justice and perceived legitimacy. Design/methodology/approach The current study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to test our hypotheses. Convenience sampling of South Korean university students ( N = 2,188) was used to investigate our inquiry. Findings The results support our hypotheses in that while procedural justice was the primary predictor of legitimacy, institutional trust and obligation to obey were also significant mediators of procedural justice and perceived legitimacy. Originality/value A multitude of research examining various predictors of police legitimacy exists (e.g. Baker and Gau, 2018; Boateng and Buckner, 2019; Boateng et al. , 2022; Lee and Lee, 2021; Lee et al. , 2022, 2024; Lee and Kim, 2023; Nagin and Telep, 2017). More importantly, various researchers have concluded that procedural justice does in fact have a positive impact on the public’s perception of governmental institutions (Hough et al. , 2010; Mazerolle et al. , 2013a; Murphy and Cherney, 2012; Sunshine and Tyler, 2003). A few research have directly examined institutional trust in the policing context (e.g. Boateng, 2018; Camp et al. , 2021). Specifically, Boateng (2018) examined institutional trust and its relationship to police performance, and Camp et al. (2021) examined police officers’ prosody and its impact on the citizens’ institutional trust in police. However, the objective of the current research is to examine the relationship between procedural justice and legitimacy through the double mediating role of the public’s perception of institutional trust and obligation to obey.