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Student Perspectives on Procedural Justice and the University Judicial Process

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Student Perspectives on Procedural Justice and the University Judicial Process Student Perspectives on Procedural Justice and the University Judicial Process A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Christopher M. Campbell March 2009 © Christopher M. Campbell. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled Student Perspectives on Procedural Justice and the University Judicial Process by CHRISTOPHER M. CAMPBELL has been approved for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the College of Arts and Sciences by Michelle Brown Assistant Professor of Sociology Benjamin M. Ogles Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3 ABSTRACT CAMPBELL, CHRISTOPHER M., M.A., March 2009, Sociology Student Perspectives on Procedural Justice and the University Judicial Process (92 pp.) Director of Thesis: Michelle Brown This paper reports the application of procedural justice theories to the setting of higher education. In particular, the setting included Ohio University processes and its students ranging from freshmen to graduate students. This project used an email based survey to study the perceptions of college students toward a university judiciaries system. The study was influenced by the Tyler, Callahan, and Frost 2007 work on rule adherence among police officers and military personnel. My findings indicate that instrumental perspectives, such as in the deterrence literature, are not the primary reason as to why students obey university rules. Rather, normative perspectives, which are based on fairness and morality, are much closer in relation to voluntary deference of the law. It goes on to suggest that using a collective understanding of the influence of both instrumental and normative perspectives on the perceptions of people, instead of focusing on just one, is the best way to predict rule adherence. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Michelle Brown Assistant Professor of Sociology 4 DEDICATION I dedicate this paper to my friends and family who were my influence and my source of motivation. Specifically to my mother Debbie, sister Brittany, brother Eric, and father Scott who taught me that all boundaries and barriers to what you can accomplish exist for the sole purpose of being exceeded and torn down. 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was not possible without the dedication and guidance of my committee members, specifically, Dr. Michelle Brown and Dr. Joseph De Angelis. Their experience, knowledge, and support were often the large driving force behind the construction of the instrument and this paper as well as the development of my professional skills. It was their belief in me and this thesis that pushed me to strive for the best possible product that I could provide. I also want to acknowledge the overall role of Dr. Christine Mattley. Aside from being a member of my committee, she worked to make my graduate experience one that minimized the anxiety and disorganization. Lastly, I want to acknowledge the guidance and support of Dr. Debra Henderson, without whom this experience would have been undoubtedly and significantly more difficult. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Dedication ........................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 5 List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... 8 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 9 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 10 The Continuum of Punishment ................................................................................. 11 Why University Judiciaries? ..................................................................................... 12 Procedural Justice and Social Control ...................................................................... 13 Procedural Justice: A Review of Literature ..................................................................... 16 Early Research .......................................................................................................... 16 Procedural vs. Distributive Justice ............................................................................ 19 Normative and Instrumental Perspectives: The Value-Expressive Theory .............. 21 Compliance ............................................................................................................... 23 The Social Psychology of Legitimacy and Rule Adherence ..................................... 26 Punishment through Procedure: What is the Purpose & is it Effective? .................. 29 The University Application ....................................................................................... 31 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 34 The Process ............................................................................................................... 34 Sample ....................................................................................................................... 40 7 Data Collection ......................................................................................................... 44 Instrument ................................................................................................................. 45 Analytical Strategies ................................................................................................. 53 Some Limitations of the Research ............................................................................ 55 Results ............................................................................................................................... 57 Results ............................................................................................................................... 57 Overall Satisfaction ................................................................................................... 61 Compliance ............................................................................................................... 68 Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 77 Procedural Justice and the University ....................................................................... 77 Limitations ................................................................................................................ 78 What Next?: The Future of Procedural Justice ......................................................... 80 References ......................................................................................................................... 82 Appendix: Judiciaries Opinion Survey ............................................................................. 87 8 LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Frequencies of Respondent Demographics with University Demographics ....41 Table 2: Descriptive Statistics for all Independent Variables used in Multivariate Tests .........................................................................................52 Table 3: Response Frequencies for Variable Questions between Students with Judiciaries Experience and Students without .............................58 Table 4.1: Crosstabulations and Correlations of Overall Satisfaction ............................63 Table 4.2: Linear Regression Analysis of Overall Satisfaction ......................................67 Table 5.1: Crosstabulations and Correlations of Compliance ........................................71 Table 5.2: Linear Regression Analysis of Compliance ..................................................75 9 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Diagram of Ohio University Judiciaries Process ............................................39 10 Introduction One of the most researched and debated questions of justice academics today pertains to social control. How does social control work? Perhaps, one of the best ways to explore such a question, one must simplify it to a more specific question, ‘Why do people obey the law?’ It was not until recent decades that people began to put this question to serious social research. This paper utilizes the work of social psychologist Tom Tyler as it investigates this issue in the setting of a Midwestern university. Applying the procedural justice perspective, this project attempts to examine student perceptions of university forms of justice, namely the university judiciaries process. Procedural justice, in its most basic sense, can be seen as any type of formalized process that is used by an organization to handle misconduct or complaint while yielding the most acceptable fair outcome (Tyler 1990; Röhl 1997). Forms of procedural justice exist in virtually every social organization, all of which mirror much of the same processes and controlling measures found in the criminal justice system. Examples of such institutions include military codes of conduct, large-scale regulation of corporations, and internal rules of higher education. The procedural
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