Abstract

Despite surging interest in legal socialization, it is unclear how youth develop legal cynicism. The present study examined two socialization mechanisms for youth legal cynicism: perceptions of police treatment and maternal legal cynicism. Additionally, we assessed the degree to which an adolescent’s legal cynicism predicts reoffending. Youth and their mothers (338 dyads, total N = 676) were interviewed following their son’s first arrest. Path modeling tracked the associations between youths’ perceptions of police treatment, youths’ and mothers’ legal cynicism, and youth reoffending. Results suggest that youths’ legal cynicism derives from their own perceived treatment by police and not from mothers’ legal cynicism. Additionally, youth who perceived the police to have treated them more fairly reported less legal cynicism and in turn reoffended less. Findings advance our understanding of the etiology of legal cynicism and can inform best practices for police interactions with youth.

摘要

尽管对法律社会化的兴趣高涨，但尚不清楚青年如何发展法律犬儒主义。本研究考察了青少年法律犬儒主义的两种社会化机制：对警察待遇的看法和孕产妇法律犬儒主义。此外，我们评估了青少年的法律犬儒主义预测再犯罪的程度。青年和他们的母亲（338 对，共N = 676) 在他们的儿子第一次被捕后接受了采访。路径建模跟踪了青少年对警察待遇的看法、青少年和母亲的法律犬儒主义以及青少年再犯罪之间的关联。结果表明，青少年对法律的冷嘲热讽源于他们自己对警察的看法，而不是来自母亲的法律冷嘲热讽。此外，认为警察更公平地对待他们的年轻人报告的法律愤世嫉俗程度较低，因此再犯罪的次数也较少。调查结果促进了我们对法律犬儒主义病因的理解，并可以为警察与青年互动的最佳实践提供信息。