ABSTRACT
First developed by Tom Tyler and colleagues in the United States, and increasingly taken u p by scholars around the world, procedural justice theory provides a model of police–community relations that is grounded in concepts of fairness. On this account, policing that is open, honest, transparent, neutral and unbiased generates public trust, legitimacy, cooperation and compliance, and procedural justice theory presents a normatively and ethically desirable model of policing that is based on consent rather than coercion. This chapter explores the impact that academic work on procedural justice and related issues has had on policing in the UK. Equally, though, it considers some of the barriers to impact, particularly in relation to resistance among police organisations and officers and the difficulties of translating ‘good ideas’ into practice.
