The moderating influence among Hispanic students of superordinate group identification and subgroup identification on evaluations of overall procedural justice, overall distributive justice, and overall satisfaction in assessing experiences with law enfor

The key objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate further the moderating influence of superordinate group identification on the relationships among evaluations of instrumental and relational fairness and evaluations of overall procedural justice, overall distributive justice, and overall satisfaction with experiences with law enforcement agents or agencies; and (2) to find out if ethnic subgroup identification moderates the associations among evaluations of instrumental and relational fairness and evaluations of overall procedural justice, overall distributive justice, and overall satisfaction with experiences with law enforcement agents or agencies. The second objective is of primary concern, as the issue of ethnic subgroup identification has not been adequately investigated by proponents of the group value model. Participants completed a written survey measuring ethnic identification (Phinney, 1992) and collective self-esteem (Crocker, 1992), and evaluating overall procedural justice, overall distributive justice, and overall satisfaction (Tyler, 1990). Hypotheses were that superordinate group identification and ethnic subgroup identification serve as moderating variables that differentially influence the associations among the predictor variables (relational evaluations of procedural fairness, instrumental evaluations of procedural fairness) and the criterion variables (evaluations of overall procedural justice, overall distributive justice, and overall satisfaction). Results reveal strong positive associations among procedural fairness evaluations (standing, neutrality, trust) and evaluations of overall procedural justice, overall distributive justice, and overall satisfaction. Strong positive associations were also found among instrumental evaluations of procedural fairness (process/decision control) and evaluations of overall procedural justice, evaluations of overall distributive justice, and overall satisfaction. Contrary to previous research (e.g., Huo et al., 1996), superordinate group identification did not moderate the relationships among relational or instrumental fairness evaluations and evaluations of overall procedural justice, overall distributive justice, or overall satisfaction. However, subgroup identification did have a moderating influence on the relationships among relational and instrumental evaluations and evaluations of overall procedural justice. Individuals more highly identified with their ethnic subgroup showed a more positive association between both relational and instrumental evaluations and evaluations of overall procedural justice.