Justice Judgments of Physical Abuse and Theft: The Importance of Outcome and Procedure

The perceived justice of a situation is frequently a function of both outcome and procedure, but the importance of each may
vary when making justice judgments. This study investigated the impact of type and severity of offence, social relationship
and status on the perceived importance of the outcome and procedure for justice judgments. The outcome was considered more
important than the procedure for judgments of both theft and physical abuse, regardless of offence severity, status of the
offender and the victim–perpetrator social relationship. Both outcome and procedure were viewed as more important for judgments
of physical abuse than theft. Data obtained for exploratory purposes yielded no correlation between ratings of justice and
importance, indicating that the two are not aspects of the same construct. Integrations with work within criminology are discussed.