Negative Police Experiences, Legal Cynicism, and the Persistence of Neighborhood Violence

• In Event: The Concentration of Violence in Local Areas

Abstract

Recent research suggests neighborhoods with residents who believe the police are illegitimate and unresponsive to crime are more likely to have persistent homicide levels above and beyond the standard structural conditions that predict high neighborhood homicide rates. One of the limitations of prior research to this point is that it has been implicit that such legal cynicism is based on direct negative experiences with law enforcement, which might explain the ambivalence of many residents in high-risk neighborhoods to call the police for assistance when violent crime problems arise. This study, which relies on census and survey data from Cincinnati, Ohio illustrates that direct negative experiences by residents predicts legal cynicism at the neighborhood level (defined through this cultural frame), and that in turn neighborhood legal cynicism conditioned upon negative direct experiences by residents significantly explains long-term homicide levels above and beyond structural conditions as well as prior homicide levels. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.

Authors

• Nicholas Corsaro, University of Cincinnati

• James Frank, University of Cincinnati

• Murat Ozer, University of Cincinnati