Victimized Teachers’ Perceptions of Procedural Justice and the Impact on Satisfaction with School Responses

ABSTRACTVictimization of teachers is an area of growing concern for administrators and policymakers. Recent research has increased the understanding of the prevalence and negative consequences of teacher victimization; however, one gap in the literature involves understanding the quality of treatment when victimizations are reported to school administrators. The present research attempts to fill the gap by applying procedural justice theory to understand how elements of school responses to victimization events affect teachers’ satisfaction with the process. Data from teachers among 50 largest school districts across the nation were used to identify 636 theft, sexual harassment, and physical assault incidents reported to school administration. Teachers’ satisfaction with the school response was modeled using measures derived from distributive and procedural justice theoretical frameworks applied to administrator actions. Results indicate that procedural justice is an important dimension of school response and influential on teachers’ reported satisfaction with how victimization events were handled.