Police Legitimacy and Procedural Justice among the Litigants in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The effective operation of law in modern societies depends not only on the exercise of power but also on public trust and institutional credibility. The quality of the relationship between the police and the public determines the extent to which citizens cooperate with law-abiding and state institutions. In this context, concepts such as the legitimacy of the police and procedural justice have assumed fundamental importance in the criminal justice system. However, the objective of the present study was to explore the relationship between police legitimacy and procedural justice in Lahore, Pakistan. This study followed a cross-sectional research design by adopting the quantitative research method. The respondents of the present research were criminal case litigants in the district courts of Lahore. The sample of 383 criminal case litigants was taken using a multistage sampling technique. Both the descriptive and inferential statistics analyses were carried out by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings of regression analysis conclude that police legitimacy has a significant positive relationship with procedural justice. Based on the findings the recommendations were suggested.