Abstract

A popular model of legal socialization contends that interactions with authority figures impact the internalization of pro-social values and beliefs, including authority legitimacy. Simultaneously, subcultural theories, including the code of the street, emphasize that negative contextual and experiential factors promote subcultural beliefs. The current study examines whether legal socialization processes are associated with the development of subcultural beliefs. Using longitudinal data from approximately 1,200 adolescent male offenders, we examined whether social experiences and contextual characteristics influence the development of individual beliefs in the code of the street through police legitimacy and legal cynicism. Consistent with theoretical expectations, the effects of deleterious neighborhood characteristics and negative interactions with authority figures were associated with beliefs in the code of the street through diminished police legitimacy and higher levels of cynicism toward the law. These findings provide evidence of the relevance of legal socialization processes for the development of subcultural norms.

摘要

一种流行的法律社会化模式认为，与权威人物的互动会影响亲社会价值观和信仰的内化，包括权威的合法性。同时，包括街道代码在内的亚文化理论强调消极的背景和经验因素会促进亚文化信仰。目前的研究考察了法律社会化过程是否与亚文化信仰的发展有关。使用来自大约 1,200 名青少年男性罪犯的纵向数据，我们检查了社会经历和背景特征是否通过警察合法性和法律犬儒主义影响个人对街头法典的信仰的发展。符合理论预期，有害的邻里特征和与权威人物的负面互动的影响与通过削弱警察合法性和对法律的更高程度的愤世嫉俗的态度与对街道守则的信仰有关。这些发现为法律社会化过程与亚文化规范发展的相关性提供了证据。