What moves Joe Driver? How perceptions of legitimacy shape regulatory compliance among Dutch traffic offenders

Using survey data collected from a sample of 1182 traffic offenders in the Netherlands, and building on the ‘procedural justice model’ which was first developed in Tyler (1990), this paper explores how perceptions of legitimacy shape regulatory compliance. The study makes three contributions to the literature. First, it is one of the few studies in which the procedural justice model is tested in Continental Europe. Second, following recent critiques in the literature, it introduces three modifications to the original model. Third, and unlike most previous studies, it is not only based on self-reporting by drivers, but includes actual evidence about their behaviour as well. With regard to the self-reported level of compliance, the present study largely confirms Tyler's (1990) original findings. Yet with regard to the observed level of compliance, there are also important differences between both studies. These findings will be explained by shifting our focus to ‘legitimacy-in-context’ (Beetham, 1991).