The Social and Developmental Antecedents of Legal Cynicism

• In Event: 477 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Culture, Media, and Socialization 1

Abstract

This study explores the social, experiential, and developmental antecedents of legal cynicism. The study comprises a range of indicators organized into four domains–bonds to institutions, predispositions, experiences, and delinquent involvement–that bear on theoretically plausible mechanisms involved in the development of legal cynicism. Four pathways to legal cynicism are examined using data from two waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths (N=1226). OLS procedures are used to regress legal cynicism at t2 (age 15) on social and psychological characteristics measured at t1 (age 13), and retrospective variables measured at t2. Baseline legal cynicism was included as a covariate in all models. The results show that self-reported delinquency is the strongest predictor of legal cynicism (β=.27, t=8.48). There is also evidence that alienation from society (β=.07, t=.58), negative experiences with police (β=.07, t=2.79), and association with deviant peers (β=.10, t=8.22) can foster legal cynicism. This study finds that legal cynicism amongst adolescents is to a small extent the result of alienation from social institutions and negative experiences with the police. To a much larger degree legal cynicism seems to represent a cognitive neutralization technique used to justify one’s previous self-reported delinquency.

Authors

• Amy Elizabeth Nivette, University of Oxford

• Manuel Eisner, University of Cambridge

• Tina Malti, University of Toronto

• Denis Ribeaud, University of Zurich