Elise Sargeant
Biographic Data
| ID | 346566 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elise Sargeant |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elise |
| FAMILY NAME | Sargeant |
| SIGNATURE | SARGEANT E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Griffith University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0158-176X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 106 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Procedural Justice and Mental Well-Being in Prisons
Research has begun to explore the role of procedural justice in prison contexts. One potential benefit of procedural justice in prisons is an uplift in the well-being of people in prison. The well-being of people in prison matters because it is associated with reduced recidivism upon release. This study draws on survey data collected from incarcerated individuals in Australia to examine the associations between their perceptions of procedural jus…
Going Above and Beyond
In the eye of the powerholder
Scholars and police organizations argue that when police officers don a uniform, they imbue a certificate of legitimacy. In our study of 238 police officers, we test the assumption that the police uniform impacts officers’ beliefs about their own legitimacy, and, in turn, their projected behavior when in uniform. We find that, when comparing across various combinations of uniforms and accoutrements, officers in our study tended to prefer their st…
The Formal-Informal Control Nexus During Covid-19
The public rely on the police to enforce the law, and the police rely on the public to report crime and assist them with their enquiries. Police action or inaction can also impact on public willingness to informally intervene in community problems. In this paper we examine the formal-informal control nexus in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a survey sample of 1,595 Australians during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, we examine the…
Situational context and public perceptions of officer appearance
Previous research has documented the effects of uniforms and accouterments on public perceptions of police in acontextual settings. Drawing upon a vignette-based survey, we explored the perceptual effects of various police uniforms and accouterments in the context of five different policing environments: (1) a burglary where the suspect was present, (2) a burglary where the suspect was not present, (3) a foot patrol, (4) a roadblock, and (5) a si…
The foundations of defiance
Defiance can be a powerful mechanism of protest against police oppression. At the same time, citizen defiance to police authority is problematic for police and can cause injury to both police officers and the public. Research shows that some groups of people defy police more than others, and that defiance often represents a reaction to disenfranchisement, police bias and unfair treatment. For example, the Black Lives Matter movement has highlight…
Examining the relationship between conspiracy theories and Covid‐19 vaccine hesitancy
The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to an upswing in conspiracy theory beliefs, which creates challenges for effectively countering the pandemic, with higher rates of COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy found among conspiracy theorists. Research suggests health risk perceptions, trust in government and anomie may mediate the relationship between COVID‐19 conspiracy theory beliefs and vaccine hesitancy. However, the mediating role of trust in government and anom…
The space between
Research regularly finds significant variation in the perceived trustworthiness of police across different social groups. For example, studies from a number of different countries have shown that people from particular ethnic and racial minority groups tend to have less positive evaluations and lower expectations of police effectiveness, benevolence and integrity, compared to their majority group counterparts. However, much less is known about ho…
Empowering the police during Covid-19
This article seeks to test the police ‘empowerment hypothesis’ to better understand public support for police powers during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, we draw on Australian survey data to compare the efficacy of the instrumental and normative models of police empowerment to enforce social distancing regulations. We find that instrumental concerns about risk dominate participants’ willingness to empower the police during the COVID-19 pandemi…
Advancing our understanding of immigrants’ trust in police
Advancing our understanding of immigrants’ trust in police: the role of ethnicity, immigrant generational status and measurement
Building Immigrants’ Solidarity with Police
Some immigrants can be reluctant to cooperate with the police due to experiences of social exclusion and discrimination. Procedural justice scholars argue that people cooperate with police when they feel the police are just and fair because such treatment motivates identification with social categories that police represent. In this paper, we consider whether immigrants in Australia respond favourably to procedurally just treatment from police be…
Exploring the impact of retirement on police officers wellbeing
This paper examines the impact of retirement on police officers. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 police retirees from Queensland, Australia, we explore the impacts of retirement on police officers’ sense of wellbeing as well as the coping strategies utilised by retirees in the transition from paid employment to retirement. We found experiences of retirement varied amongst participants depending on the role they had whilst polici…
Policing Covid-19 physical distancing measures
Physical distancing measures have become the first line of defence for slowing COVID-19 virus transmission. However, studies have demonstrated that compliance with physical distancing restrictions has not been uniform. Police have also encountered widespread resentment of the restrictions, defiance, and people purposefully flouting restrictions. In this study, we examined factors associated with compliance with COVID-19 restrictions among those w…
Why people comply with Covid-19 social distancing restrictions
On 11 March 2020 the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) a global pandemic. At the time of writing, over 16 million cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed worldwide, and more than 650,000 people had died from the virus. A priority amongst governments globally is limiting the spread of the virus. In Australia, this response included mandatory ‘lockdown’ restrictions which limited citizens’ freedom of movement…
The defiant and the compliant
Understanding public dispositions to defy police is important for police practice. Citizen defiance can result in arrest, injury or even death. The current study examines the antecedents of ‘defiant’ and ‘compliant’ motivational postures among a sample of 1,480 ethnic minority group members. Developing a better understanding of defiant and compliant postures is important when studying ethnic minority groups who may be more likely to defy police c…
To trust or distrust
Studies find that immigrants can be less trusting of police than non-immigrants, with immigrants’ views deteriorating as their length of residence in a host country increases. However, existing research has failed to consider different dimensions of trust. This study applies different trust measures (single-item and multi-item measures) to examine whether trust in police varies by immigrant status and length of residence. Using survey data from 1…
Is dissatisfaction with police inevitable? Testing an integrated model of motivational postures and procedural justice in police-citizen contacts
In this paper we consider whether pre-existing defiant postures shape citizens’ perceptions of procedural justice and satisfaction in police-citizen encounters. Utilizing longitudinal survey data we examine 440 people who reported having personal contact with police in the 12-month period preceding the second survey. We find defiance at Time 1 results in lower perceptions of procedural justice and satisfaction with police-citizen encounters at Ti…
Promoting police legitimacy among disengaged minority groups
Procedural justice is known to enhance perceptions of police legitimacy. Studies show that procedural justice may be less effective for some individuals and groups, while others show it to be more effective. This study investigates the contingency of the procedural justice effect and considers the effectiveness of procedural justice for certain individuals through the concept of disengagement. Utilizing a survey of 1480 ethnic minority group memb…
Social capital and fear of crime in Brisbane
Social capital is upheld for its value in explaining variations in crime across place. Collective efficacy is understood to be the superlative link between less effectual components of neighbourhood social capital (such as social ties and reciprocity) and lower rates of crime. The current study examines the value of neighbourhood social capital in explaining another community attribute associated with neighbourhoods: fear of crime. We conduct a s…
Re-examining the normative, expressive, and instrumental models
Policing by consent has long been viewed as a fundamental feature of modern policing. Police need citizens to report crime and suspicious activity and to assist police with their enquiries. The procedural justice model is commonly employed to explain cooperation with police, yet few studies consider how social context informs cooperation. In this study we examine the role of contextual factors in developing a better understanding of the procedura…
Policing and collective efficacy
The role of police in building collective efficacy remains an unanswered question. This paper employs a sample of 4403 people living in 148 neighbourhoods in Brisbane, Australia, to examine the relationship between perceptions of police and collective efficacy. Results indicate that even when controlling for neighbourhood compositional and structural characteristics, trust in police effectiveness and procedural justice are the key variables expla…
A Leap of Faith? Trust in the Police Among Immigrants in England and Wales
It is often assumed that immigrants in countries such as the United Kingdom will report lower levels of trust in the police. Immigrant communities are thought ‘difficult to police’, and minority groups frequently experience problematic relationships with police. Yet, there has been little empirical investigation of this issue in the United Kingdom. In this paper, data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales are used to explore the relationship…
Keeping it in the family
Prior research finds young people are less satisfied with police than their older counterparts. Despite this, our understanding of youth attitudes to police is limited, as most research has focused on adult attitudes to police. This study adds to our understanding by examining the influence of parent-child dynamics on youth attitudes to police. We predict that youth attitudes to police will be influenced by their parents' attitudes. A survey of 5…
Ethnicity, trust and cooperation with police
Some scholars question whether procedural justice is the key driver in promoting support for the police across all cultural contexts. In this study we examine the relationship between procedural justice, police performance, trust in the police and the willingness to cooperate with the police, and we compare Vietnamese and Indian ancestral groups with the general population in Australia. We find that procedural justice is less effective in encoura…
Social identity and procedural justice in police encounters with the public
The role of social identity in shaping citizen views of police is central to the group-value model (GVM). The GVM suggests that the relationship between public perceptions of fair treatment and views of police legitimacy will be tempered by social identity. Our paper employs a randomised field trial of procedural justice dialogue – the Queensland Community Engagement Trial – to test the role of social identity in the GVM. Under randomised field t…
Collective Efficacy as a Task Specific Process
In the neighborhood effects literature, collective efficacy is viewed as the key explanatory process associated with the spatial distribution of a range of social problems. While many studies usefully focus on the consequences of collective efficacy, in this paper we examine the task specificity of collective efficacy and consider the individual and neighborhood factors that influence residents’ perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy for…
Promoting police legitimacy among disengaged minority groups
Procedural justice is known to enhance perceptions of police legitimacy. Studies show that procedural justice may be less effective for some individuals and groups, while others show it to be more effective. This study investigates the contingency of the procedural justice effect and considers the effectiveness of procedural justice for certain individuals through the concept of disengagement. Utilizing a survey of 1480 ethnic minority group memb…
Policing Covid-19 physical distancing measures
Physical distancing measures have become the first line of defence for slowing COVID-19 virus transmission. However, studies have demonstrated that compliance with physical distancing restrictions has not been uniform. Police have also encountered widespread resentment of the restrictions, defiance, and people purposefully flouting restrictions. In this study, we examined factors associated with compliance with COVID-19 restrictions among those w…
Social identity and procedural justice in police encounters with the public
The role of social identity in shaping citizen views of police is central to the group-value model (GVM). The GVM suggests that the relationship between public perceptions of fair treatment and views of police legitimacy will be tempered by social identity. Our paper employs a randomised field trial of procedural justice dialogue – the Queensland Community Engagement Trial – to test the role of social identity in the GVM. Under randomised field t…
Building Immigrants’ Solidarity with Police
Some immigrants can be reluctant to cooperate with the police due to experiences of social exclusion and discrimination. Procedural justice scholars argue that people cooperate with police when they feel the police are just and fair because such treatment motivates identification with social categories that police represent. In this paper, we consider whether immigrants in Australia respond favourably to procedurally just treatment from police be…
Re-examining the normative, expressive, and instrumental models
Policing by consent has long been viewed as a fundamental feature of modern policing. Police need citizens to report crime and suspicious activity and to assist police with their enquiries. The procedural justice model is commonly employed to explain cooperation with police, yet few studies consider how social context informs cooperation. In this study we examine the role of contextual factors in developing a better understanding of the procedura…
Policing and collective efficacy
The role of police in building collective efficacy remains an unanswered question. This paper employs a sample of 4403 people living in 148 neighbourhoods in Brisbane, Australia, to examine the relationship between perceptions of police and collective efficacy. Results indicate that even when controlling for neighbourhood compositional and structural characteristics, trust in police effectiveness and procedural justice are the key variables expla…
Keeping it in the family
Prior research finds young people are less satisfied with police than their older counterparts. Despite this, our understanding of youth attitudes to police is limited, as most research has focused on adult attitudes to police. This study adds to our understanding by examining the influence of parent-child dynamics on youth attitudes to police. We predict that youth attitudes to police will be influenced by their parents' attitudes. A survey of 5…
The defiant and the compliant
Understanding public dispositions to defy police is important for police practice. Citizen defiance can result in arrest, injury or even death. The current study examines the antecedents of ‘defiant’ and ‘compliant’ motivational postures among a sample of 1,480 ethnic minority group members. Developing a better understanding of defiant and compliant postures is important when studying ethnic minority groups who may be more likely to defy police c…
To trust or distrust
Studies find that immigrants can be less trusting of police than non-immigrants, with immigrants’ views deteriorating as their length of residence in a host country increases. However, existing research has failed to consider different dimensions of trust. This study applies different trust measures (single-item and multi-item measures) to examine whether trust in police varies by immigrant status and length of residence. Using survey data from 1…
The space between
Research regularly finds significant variation in the perceived trustworthiness of police across different social groups. For example, studies from a number of different countries have shown that people from particular ethnic and racial minority groups tend to have less positive evaluations and lower expectations of police effectiveness, benevolence and integrity, compared to their majority group counterparts. However, much less is known about ho…
Advancing our understanding of immigrants’ trust in police
Advancing our understanding of immigrants’ trust in police: the role of ethnicity, immigrant generational status and measurement
A Leap of Faith? Trust in the Police Among Immigrants in England and Wales
It is often assumed that immigrants in countries such as the United Kingdom will report lower levels of trust in the police. Immigrant communities are thought ‘difficult to police’, and minority groups frequently experience problematic relationships with police. Yet, there has been little empirical investigation of this issue in the United Kingdom. In this paper, data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales are used to explore the relationship…
The foundations of defiance
Defiance can be a powerful mechanism of protest against police oppression. At the same time, citizen defiance to police authority is problematic for police and can cause injury to both police officers and the public. Research shows that some groups of people defy police more than others, and that defiance often represents a reaction to disenfranchisement, police bias and unfair treatment. For example, the Black Lives Matter movement has highlight…
Social capital and fear of crime in Brisbane
Social capital is upheld for its value in explaining variations in crime across place. Collective efficacy is understood to be the superlative link between less effectual components of neighbourhood social capital (such as social ties and reciprocity) and lower rates of crime. The current study examines the value of neighbourhood social capital in explaining another community attribute associated with neighbourhoods: fear of crime. We conduct a s…
Procedural justice and police legitimacy
Legitimacy in Policing
Collective Efficacy as a Task Specific Process
In the neighborhood effects literature, collective efficacy is viewed as the key explanatory process associated with the spatial distribution of a range of social problems. While many studies usefully focus on the consequences of collective efficacy, in this paper we examine the task specificity of collective efficacy and consider the individual and neighborhood factors that influence residents’ perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy for…
Ethnicity, trust and cooperation with police
Some scholars question whether procedural justice is the key driver in promoting support for the police across all cultural contexts. In this study we examine the relationship between procedural justice, police performance, trust in the police and the willingness to cooperate with the police, and we compare Vietnamese and Indian ancestral groups with the general population in Australia. We find that procedural justice is less effective in encoura…
Social identity and procedural justice in police encounters with the public
The role of social identity in shaping citizen views of police is central to the group-value model (GVM). The GVM suggests that the relationship between public perceptions of fair treatment and views of police legitimacy will be tempered by social identity. Our paper employs a randomised field trial of procedural justice dialogue – the Queensland Community Engagement Trial – to test the role of social identity in the GVM. Under randomised field t…
Policing and collective efficacy
The role of police in building collective efficacy remains an unanswered question. This paper employs a sample of 4403 people living in 148 neighbourhoods in Brisbane, Australia, to examine the relationship between perceptions of police and collective efficacy. Results indicate that even when controlling for neighbourhood compositional and structural characteristics, trust in police effectiveness and procedural justice are the key variables expla…
A Leap of Faith? Trust in the Police Among Immigrants in England and Wales
It is often assumed that immigrants in countries such as the United Kingdom will report lower levels of trust in the police. Immigrant communities are thought ‘difficult to police’, and minority groups frequently experience problematic relationships with police. Yet, there has been little empirical investigation of this issue in the United Kingdom. In this paper, data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales are used to explore the relationship…
Keeping it in the family
Prior research finds young people are less satisfied with police than their older counterparts. Despite this, our understanding of youth attitudes to police is limited, as most research has focused on adult attitudes to police. This study adds to our understanding by examining the influence of parent-child dynamics on youth attitudes to police. We predict that youth attitudes to police will be influenced by their parents' attitudes. A survey of 5…
Re-examining the normative, expressive, and instrumental models
Policing by consent has long been viewed as a fundamental feature of modern policing. Police need citizens to report crime and suspicious activity and to assist police with their enquiries. The procedural justice model is commonly employed to explain cooperation with police, yet few studies consider how social context informs cooperation. In this study we examine the role of contextual factors in developing a better understanding of the procedura…
Promoting police legitimacy among disengaged minority groups
Procedural justice is known to enhance perceptions of police legitimacy. Studies show that procedural justice may be less effective for some individuals and groups, while others show it to be more effective. This study investigates the contingency of the procedural justice effect and considers the effectiveness of procedural justice for certain individuals through the concept of disengagement. Utilizing a survey of 1480 ethnic minority group memb…
Social capital and fear of crime in Brisbane
Social capital is upheld for its value in explaining variations in crime across place. Collective efficacy is understood to be the superlative link between less effectual components of neighbourhood social capital (such as social ties and reciprocity) and lower rates of crime. The current study examines the value of neighbourhood social capital in explaining another community attribute associated with neighbourhoods: fear of crime. We conduct a s…
Is dissatisfaction with police inevitable? Testing an integrated model of motivational postures and procedural justice in police-citizen contacts
In this paper we consider whether pre-existing defiant postures shape citizens’ perceptions of procedural justice and satisfaction in police-citizen encounters. Utilizing longitudinal survey data we examine 440 people who reported having personal contact with police in the 12-month period preceding the second survey. We find defiance at Time 1 results in lower perceptions of procedural justice and satisfaction with police-citizen encounters at Ti…
Why people comply with Covid-19 social distancing restrictions
On 11 March 2020 the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) a global pandemic. At the time of writing, over 16 million cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed worldwide, and more than 650,000 people had died from the virus. A priority amongst governments globally is limiting the spread of the virus. In Australia, this response included mandatory ‘lockdown’ restrictions which limited citizens’ freedom of movement…
The defiant and the compliant
Understanding public dispositions to defy police is important for police practice. Citizen defiance can result in arrest, injury or even death. The current study examines the antecedents of ‘defiant’ and ‘compliant’ motivational postures among a sample of 1,480 ethnic minority group members. Developing a better understanding of defiant and compliant postures is important when studying ethnic minority groups who may be more likely to defy police c…
To trust or distrust
Studies find that immigrants can be less trusting of police than non-immigrants, with immigrants’ views deteriorating as their length of residence in a host country increases. However, existing research has failed to consider different dimensions of trust. This study applies different trust measures (single-item and multi-item measures) to examine whether trust in police varies by immigrant status and length of residence. Using survey data from 1…
Exploring the impact of retirement on police officers wellbeing
This paper examines the impact of retirement on police officers. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 police retirees from Queensland, Australia, we explore the impacts of retirement on police officers’ sense of wellbeing as well as the coping strategies utilised by retirees in the transition from paid employment to retirement. We found experiences of retirement varied amongst participants depending on the role they had whilst polici…
Policing Covid-19 physical distancing measures
Physical distancing measures have become the first line of defence for slowing COVID-19 virus transmission. However, studies have demonstrated that compliance with physical distancing restrictions has not been uniform. Police have also encountered widespread resentment of the restrictions, defiance, and people purposefully flouting restrictions. In this study, we examined factors associated with compliance with COVID-19 restrictions among those w…
Examining the relationship between conspiracy theories and Covid‐19 vaccine hesitancy
The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to an upswing in conspiracy theory beliefs, which creates challenges for effectively countering the pandemic, with higher rates of COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy found among conspiracy theorists. Research suggests health risk perceptions, trust in government and anomie may mediate the relationship between COVID‐19 conspiracy theory beliefs and vaccine hesitancy. However, the mediating role of trust in government and anom…
The space between
Research regularly finds significant variation in the perceived trustworthiness of police across different social groups. For example, studies from a number of different countries have shown that people from particular ethnic and racial minority groups tend to have less positive evaluations and lower expectations of police effectiveness, benevolence and integrity, compared to their majority group counterparts. However, much less is known about ho…
Empowering the police during Covid-19
This article seeks to test the police ‘empowerment hypothesis’ to better understand public support for police powers during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, we draw on Australian survey data to compare the efficacy of the instrumental and normative models of police empowerment to enforce social distancing regulations. We find that instrumental concerns about risk dominate participants’ willingness to empower the police during the COVID-19 pandemi…
Advancing our understanding of immigrants’ trust in police
Advancing our understanding of immigrants’ trust in police: the role of ethnicity, immigrant generational status and measurement
Building Immigrants’ Solidarity with Police
Some immigrants can be reluctant to cooperate with the police due to experiences of social exclusion and discrimination. Procedural justice scholars argue that people cooperate with police when they feel the police are just and fair because such treatment motivates identification with social categories that police represent. In this paper, we consider whether immigrants in Australia respond favourably to procedurally just treatment from police be…
The Formal-Informal Control Nexus During Covid-19
The public rely on the police to enforce the law, and the police rely on the public to report crime and assist them with their enquiries. Police action or inaction can also impact on public willingness to informally intervene in community problems. In this paper we examine the formal-informal control nexus in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a survey sample of 1,595 Australians during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, we examine the…
Situational context and public perceptions of officer appearance
Previous research has documented the effects of uniforms and accouterments on public perceptions of police in acontextual settings. Drawing upon a vignette-based survey, we explored the perceptual effects of various police uniforms and accouterments in the context of five different policing environments: (1) a burglary where the suspect was present, (2) a burglary where the suspect was not present, (3) a foot patrol, (4) a roadblock, and (5) a si…
The foundations of defiance
Defiance can be a powerful mechanism of protest against police oppression. At the same time, citizen defiance to police authority is problematic for police and can cause injury to both police officers and the public. Research shows that some groups of people defy police more than others, and that defiance often represents a reaction to disenfranchisement, police bias and unfair treatment. For example, the Black Lives Matter movement has highlight…
Psychology (23 works) · Social Psychology (23 works) · Policing Practices and Perceptions (20 works) · Political science (20 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (19 works) · Criminology (18 works) · Law (18 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Procedural justice (13 works) · Social Psychology (13 works)