Promoting community collaboration in counterterrorism: Do social identities and perceptions of legitimacy mediate reactions to procedural justice policing?

The present study examines whether procedural justice policing can promote Muslims' willingness to cooperate with police in terrorism prevention. Using survey data from 800 Australian Muslims, we show that Muslims value procedural justice when it comes to working with police to prevent terrorism. We also examine whether social identification processes or perceptions of police legitimacy explain why procedural justice promotes Muslims' willingness to work with police. The findings suggest that despite the salience of identity within the current political discourse about terrorism and Islam, perceptions of police legitimacy appear to have a stronger bearing on Muslims' predicted behaviour. We consider the implications of our findings for theories in the procedural justice field and for counterterrorism policy and practice