1. Procedural Justice and
the Adolescent
Offender
Suzanne O. Kaasa, Lindsay C. Malloy, and Elizabeth Cauffman
University of California, Irvine
American Psychology-Law Society
March 8, 2008

2. Adjustment to Incarceration
 Most crimes are committed during adolescence
 Important to study perceptions and reactions to
the justice system
 perceptions of how juvenile offenders were treated
by the justice system
 how this perception affects emotional and
behavioral adjustment to incarceration

3. Perceptions of Trial
 How positive or negative individuals perceive
their legal experience to be depends on
 Outcome (e.g., guilty or not guilty)
 Procedure (e.g., how fair was the trial?)
(Thibaut & Walker, 1975; Tyler, 2000; Tyler & Folger, 1980)

4. What Makes a Procedure Just?
 Voice/Process Control/Involvement
(e.g., Leventhal, 1980; Casper et al., 1998; Fagan & Tyler, 2005;
Lind et al., 1990)
 Neutrality
(e.g., Fagan & Tyler, 2005; Leventhal, 1980; Tyler 1984, 1988,
1989, 1994)
 Respectfulness
(e.g., Casper et al., 1988; Fagan & Tyler, 2005, Tyler, 1989, 1994)
 Motive/Honesty/Ethicality of Authority
(e.g., Fagan & Tyler, 2005; Leventhal, 1980, Tyler, 1988, 1989,
1994)

5. Effects of Procedural Justice
 Emotional/Attitudinal
 Emotions (e.g., anger, indignation) (e.g., Mikula, 1986)
 Legal cynicism (e.g., Piquero et al., 2006)
 General attitudes toward the court, quality of performance
(e.g., Tyler, 1984, 2000; Tyler & Folger, 1980)
 Behavioral
 Acceptance/Compliance with decision (e.g., McEwan & Maiman, 1984;
Greenberg 1987; Greenberg & Folger, 1983; Lind et al., 1993; MacCoun et al., 1988; Tyler,
1990)
 Increased law abiding behavior (e.g., Gottfredson et al., 2007; Paternoster et
al., 1997; Tyler, 1990; Tyler et al., 2007)

6. Method
 373 incarcerated male juvenile offenders
 age 14-17 (M = 16)
 Five time points: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Month 1,
Month 2
53%
29%
6%
12%
Latino
African American
White
Other

7. Procedural InJustice Scale
 20 items, alpha = .85
 1-5 scale, higher scores = higher injustice
 Court, judge, prosecutor, defense attorney
 “The judge did not let me tell all of the side of my story.”
 “The judge made up his/her mind prior to receiving any
information about the case.”
 “The judge treated me with respect and dignity.”
 “The judge showed concern for my rights.”
 Injust vs. Moderate vs. Just
Adapted from Piquero et al. (2006)

8. Behavioral Adjustment
 Self-Report of Offending (SRO; Adapted from Huizinga,
Esbensen, & Weihar, 1991)
 9-items
 “How often have you attacked someone where you
planned to seriously hurt them?”
 frequency of offending at each time point
 total variety of offending behavior

9. Emotional Adjustment
 Novaco Anger Scale (Novaco, 2003)
 60 items
 “Have you felt this way in the past
week/month?”
“When I think about something that makes me
angry, I get even more angry.”
“If I feel myself getting angry, I can calm myself
down.”

10. Attitudinal Adjustment
 Justice System Attitudes (adapted from Martin & Cohen, 2004)
 12 items
 How fair and effective is the justice system?
 “The justice system is effective at punishing crimes.”
 Organization Perceptions of the Facility
 7 items
 How well-run is the facility?
 “The facility is always neat and clean”

11. Predictors of Procedural Injustice
 M = 3.2, SD = .63, range 1.25-4.85
 Age at baseline = ns
2.8
2.9
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
Latino African American Caucasian
ProceduralInjustice
F(2, 283) =
3.47, p < .05

12. Frequency of Offending
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Week 2 Week 3 Month 1 Month 2
MeanFrequency
InJust
Moderate
Just
Main effect: F(2, 152) = 4.11, p = .02

13. Offending Variety
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
InJust Moderate Just
VarietyOver2Months
F(2, 282) = 4.42, p = .01

14. Anger
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
Week 2 Month 1 Month 2
NovacoAngerScale
InJust
Moderate
Just
Main effect: F(2, 162) = 3.61, p = .03

15. Perception of Justice System
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
Week 1 Month 1 Month 2
NegativeJusticeSystemAttitudes
InJust
Moderate
Just
Main effect: F(2, 199) = 12.03, p < .001

16. Perception of Institution
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Month
1
Month
2
FacilityIsWellRun
InJust
Moderate
Just
Main effect: F(2, 151) = 3.23, p = .04 Time*PJ: F(7.01, 529.36) = 2.78, p = .008

17. Summary
 Perception of unjust treatment
 Greater for minorities
 Greater levels of anger
 Less positive view of the justice system
 Less positive view of the facility organization
 Greater frequency and variety of institutional
offending

18. Summary
 Procedural Justice is not significantly related to:
 Prior offense history
 Victimization inside the institution
 Depression
 Perceptions of staff

19. Discussion
 Youth have undergone a significant interaction with the
legal system and must live in continual contact with
legal authorities.
 Youth who believe they were treated fairly by the legal
system are less likely to act out.
 Effects of procedural justice last over time.
 Efforts towards rehabilitation may need to begin at the
earliest contacts with the justice system.

20.  Division of Juvenile Justice
 Bernard Warner
 Rudy Haapanen
 James Fairgrieve
 Carla Viazcan
 Funding Source
 National Institute of Mental
Health
 Graduate Students & Postdocs
 Amanda Cohen
 Julia Dmitrieva
 Sue Farruggia
 Asha Goldweber
 Erin Kelly
 Eva Kimonis
 Kristen Meyer
 Elizabeth Shulman
 Undergraduate Students
Madihha Ahussain, Katie Barnes,
Jordan Bechtold, Carolina
Castanada, Jocelyn Cook, Kaycie
Craib, Marine DeArmas, Diana
Diaz, Priyanka Doshi, Helena Ertel,
Kourtney Fuller, Nancy Girguis,
Maribel Gonzalez, Angelica
Gutierrez, Tyler Han, Melissa
Hendricks, Allina Hightower,
Natasha Jain, Sara Holderfield, Janet
Kim, Ashley Kruger, Jenna
Kirschenman, Claire Latouche,
Danielle Lewien, Veronica Lopez,
John Phan, Yuri Reyes, Chris
Ridgeway, David Ritter, James
Robinson, Kashif Ross, Danish
Shahbaz, Corinne Sheehan, Ania
Siedlecka, Jeanna Syn, Jeannete
Villagran, Anamaria Wallner, Megan
Watt
Acknowledgments