Abstract
In this study of perceived legitimacy, Australian citizens from a randomly selected national sample first responded to information about how judicial authorities responded to two crimes (green protest, date rape) in terms of seriousness and recommended punishment. They also provided ratings of the importance of a set of values for judicial authorities compared with self, and measures of global value discrepancy, procedural fairness, expertise, and legitimacy. Results showed that perceived legitimacy was negatively related to global value discrepancy and that the information provided to participants about judge’s position primed differences in value discrepancy only for the date rape crime. Other findings also implied that the nature of the offense moderated legitimacy/value discrepancy relations. Perceived legitimacy was also positively related to procedural fairness and the expertise of the authority, and higher when the judicial authority was perceived to assign specific values as even more important than participants did themselves.
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Acknowledgments
We acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council, Grant Number A79602026. This research was conducted when Robert Boeckmann was in the school of Psychology at Flinders University.
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Appendix
Date Rape Offense
Jim, a 24-year-old man is out at a pub on a Saturday night and he meets Kathy, a 21-year-old woman. They have some drinks and dance for a while. They agree to walk together to another pub down the street. Along the way they stop and kiss in an alley.
Jim wants to take the affections to a further level. Kathy says “No” and says she would like to go.
Jim pulls Kathy into the alley and rapes her. People passing by hear a struggle and call the police. The police arrest Jim for rape.
Green Protest Offense
Jim is a member of a “green” group that promotes environmental conservation and the protection of animals. He joins others in a protest against forestry workers who are cutting down trees for wood chipping in an old established native forest.
Jim feels that shouting “save the trees” is not enough to stop logging companies. The police forcibly remove him and order him not to return to the property.
Jim returns at night and pours corrosive chemicals into the fuel tanks of several large pieces of machinery. Undetected chemicals would seriously damage the expensive machinery.
A security guard catches Jim and he is later found guilty of refusing to obey a police order and wilful property damage.
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Feather, N.T., Boeckmann, R.J. Perceived Legitimacy of Judicial Authorities in Relation to Degree of Value Discrepancy with Public Citizens. Soc Just Res 26, 193–217 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-013-0183-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-013-0183-1