Procedural justice

Procedural justice is the perceived fairness of the processes used to make decisions and resolve disputes, distinct from the fairness of their outcomes.

Voice (procedural justice): The opportunity to express views and provide information before an authority makes a decision. Having a voice is a central way procedures signal that affected people are taken seriously.
Group-value model: A theory that people use fair treatment to infer their standing and membership within a group. It explains why respectful procedures can matter beyond the material outcome.
Procedural justice in policing: The application of fair-process principles to police encounters and law enforcement decisions. Police treatment is a prominent setting where process judgments shape public cooperation.
Distributive justice: The fairness of how benefits, burdens, and resources are distributed among people. It concerns who gets what, whereas procedural justice concerns how decisions are reached.
Neutrality (procedural justice): Impartial decision-making based on consistent rules and relevant evidence. Neutrality makes procedures appear free from bias or favoritism.
Relational model of authority: A theory that people respond to authorities partly through the quality of their social relationship with them. It connects fair treatment by officials with legitimacy and voluntary cooperation.
Procedural justice in courts: The fairness of court procedures, including opportunities to be heard and impartial adjudication. Court users assess justice partly through how cases are handled, not only through verdicts.
Interactional justice: Perceived fairness in the interpersonal treatment and explanations people receive during decision-making. It overlaps with procedural justice but focuses specifically on communication and treatment.
Respect (procedural justice): Treatment that recognizes a person’s dignity and rights during an interaction or decision process. Respectful treatment shapes whether an authority’s process feels fair.
Organizational justice: The study of fairness perceptions in workplaces, including decisions, outcomes, and interpersonal treatment. Procedural justice is one dimension of the broader fairness studied in organizations.

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