Procedural justice and incarcerated people's obligation to obey institutional rules: An examination of current, former, and never-gang members

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between procedural justice perceptions and obligation to obey institutional rules among incarcerated populations with an emphasis on the impact of gang membership on this relationship. Using a cross-sectional research design, we collected data from self-reported surveys of incarcerated individuals from three male and two female correctional facilities (N = 3411). To answer our proposed research questions, we perform group-based structural equation modeling. Findings indicate that procedural justice perceptions and obligation to obey are positively associated. Results also reveal that procedural justice was positively associated with obligation to obey across all groups of gang membership—current, former, and never-gang. However, we found no support for significant differences across gang membership. This study provides empirical evidence supporting the positive relationship between perceptions of procedural justice and obligation to obey among a sample of incarcerated men and women. However, results found no statistically significant difference across groups suggesting that the relationship between procedural justice and obligation to obey is important regardless of gang status. •We examine whether the relationship between procedural justice perceptions and obligation to obey vary by gang membership.•This study uses group-based structural equation modeling.•Procedural justice perceptions were positively associated with obligation to obey across gang membership.•Study findings highlight the importance of the process-based model of procedural justice within the incarcerated setting.