Attitudes about The Criminal Courts: Does Police Contact Affect Youths’ Views of the Criminal Courts?

• In Event: Police Contact and Perceptions of Justice

Abstract

While few studies have considered how experiences within the court system and encounters with various legal actors influence youths’ attitudes towards the courts and the criminal justice system, there has not been any consideration of how interactions with police (the first point of contact with the justice system) may or may not affect attitudes about the criminal courts (one of the final points of contact with the justice system). This study seeks to determine the impact that police contact has on Canadian street youths’ perceptions of the criminal courts. Drawing from a 2009 dataset collected from street youth in Toronto, Canada, this study tests whether police contact is a relevant predictor of perceptions of the criminal courts. While the results do not provide evidence of statistically significant relationships, they do provide a more in-depth examination of the factors that play a role in influencing Canadian youths’ opinions about the criminal courts than current research does. Future research can build off of this study by utilizing a more representative sample, as the street youth population is rather unique. This may allow for a more thorough understanding of how interactions with police affect the view that youth have of the criminal courts.

Author

• Rebekah Aloisio, University of Guelph