Influence of judges’ behaviour on perceived procedural justice

The influence of judges’ behavior on procedural justice was analyzed in a field study, observing the judges’ behavior during n = 129 trials and assessing the defendants’ and the audiences’ justice perceptions. The observed judicial behavior was unrelated to the defendants’ justice perceptions. However, the more respectful the judge treated the defendants, the fairer the audience perceived the trial. In general, the effect size of the relationship between observational measures and subjective justice ratings was small in comparison to the relationship within defendants’ or audiences’ ratings. There were striking differences in the justice perception between the two data sources, namely defendants and audience. Thus, the source matters and, to avoid a same-source bias, should be taken into account when analyzing justice perceptions.