Abstract
While perceptions of the legitimacy of formal authority have been found to influence offending, little is known about the extent to which such perceptions influence the related outcome of victimization. This study addressed this gap by examining how changes in legitimacy affected victimization both within- and between-individuals. This study used 7 waves of the Pathways to Desistance data (n = 1310; 13.85% female; age range 14–22). Youth who have committed serious offenses were surveyed at 6-month intervals during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. In the full sample, the effects of legitimacy on both victimization and offending remained largely stable over time within individuals. Sensitivity analyses revealed that more positive perceptions of legitimacy significantly reduce offending for boys and reduce victimization for girls during the developmental period under study. Consistent with prior research, between-individual differences appear to be more important than within-individual change for explaining both offending and victimization. The implications of the results for theory, future research, and early intervention for high-risk youth are discussed.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Michael Reisig for his statistical help.
Authors’ Contributions
NP conceived the study, performed analyses and wrote up results section; KH interpreted results and completed the discussion and conclusion sections as well as edited literature review; NM write literature review section; AF aided in writing the literature review section and with statistical analyses. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
The authors did not receive any funding; Original data collection was funded by various groups and can be found here: groups, found here https://www.pathwaysstudy.pitt.edu/funders.html.
Data Sharing and Declarations
The dataset analyzed during the current study is available in the ICPSR repository, https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies/29961.
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IRB approval was obtained by the universities collecting data for the original Pathways study. The authors complied with the Committee on Publication Ethics’ standards when developing this manuscript.
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Pusch, N., Holtfreter, K., McKenna, N. et al. Perceptions of Legal Authorities in a Longitudinal Study of Adjudicated Youth. J Youth Adolescence 50, 2224–2235 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01504-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01504-1