Award Date

5-15-2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Criminal Justice

First Committee Member

Alexandra Nur

Second Committee Member

William Sousa

Third Committee Member

Tamara Herold

Fourth Committee Member

Miliaikeala Heen

Number of Pages

154

Abstract

This study examines how probation and parole (P&P) officers perceive fairness within their organizations and how these perceptions relate to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and emotional exhaustion. Organizational justice research has been conducted primarily in business and policing contexts, with limited attention to whether established measurement models accurately capture fairness in community corrections. Because P&P officers operate within hybrid roles characterized by discretion, sustained supervisory relationships, and bureaucratic constraint, fairness perceptions in this setting may not align cleanly with existing dimensional frameworks.

Using survey data collected from P&P officers in a western U.S. state, this study evaluates competing measurement structures of organizational justice through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), comparing the traditional four-factor model (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice) to a procedurally centered alternative. Results support the multidimensional four-factor structure while revealing substantial empirical overlap between procedural and interpersonal justice. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicates that distributive and informational justice are consistently associated with job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion, whereas relational justice demonstrates its strongest association with organizational commitment. Mediation analyses show that organizational commitment partially mediates the relationship between justice perceptions and emotional exhaustion. These findings contribute to organizational justice scholarship by evaluating construct validity within a community corrections context and by demonstrating how occupational structure shapes the interpretation of fairness dimensions. The study advances a context-sensitive understanding of justice perceptions in criminal justice organizations and offers implications for workforce stability, retention, and employee well-being.

Keywords

burnout; community corrections; organizational commitment; organizational justice; probation and parole; structural equation modeling

Disciplines

Criminology | Criminology and Criminal Justice | Sociology | Work, Economy and Organizations

File Format

PDF

File Size

1391 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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