In Their Own Voices: An Examination of Substantive Justice on Satisfaction with the Police
Date & Time: May 15, 2026 (Friday) 12:00-13:00
Venue: Room 723, 7/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
Language: English
(In-person Event)
Abstract:
Substantive justice in policing focuses on the fairness of citizen-police encounter outcomes. Yet, much remains unknown about how substantive justice affects satisfaction with the police. This study provides the first quantitative examination of how substantive justice shapes public satisfaction with the police. The findings not only affirm the importance of substantive justice as the most influential factor in citizen satisfaction with the police but also uncover an additional dimension: substantive justice serves as a key mechanism underlying the differential levels of satisfaction with the police reported by Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. It is concluded that Indigenous people’s lower satisfaction reflects not only their marginalized social position but also persistent differential treatment by some police officers. This pattern of unequal treatment, resulting from what is termed the residual effect of “rotten apples,” warrants further investigation in other social and institutional contexts.
Speaker：
Liqun Cao, Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Ontario Tech University, Canada. He was inducted as an Academy Fellow of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in 2025, and Stanford University’s global citation rankings place him among the top 2% of scientists worldwide. His research interests include criminological theory, gun ownership, police legitimacy, policies addressing ascetic deviance, and race and ethnicity in criminal justice. Professor Cao is the author of Major Criminological Theories: Concepts and Measurement (2004) and lead co-author of Policing in Taiwan: From Authoritarianism to Democracy (2014). He edited Understanding Legitimacy in Criminal Justice: Conceptual and Measurement Challenges (2022) and previously co-edited Lessons of International/Comparative Criminology/Criminal Justice (2004) and the Handbook of Chinese Criminology (2014).
Chair:
Hualing Fu is the Warren Chan Professor in Human Rights and Responsibilities and the Dean of the Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
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