The Enduring Legacy of Neighborhood Police Misconduct for Legal Cynicism

• In Event: Additional Long-term Studies from PHDCN+ (Panel 2 of 2)

Abstract

This study explores long-term consequences of cumulative exposures to abusive policing practices to people’s cynicism about the law and legal institutions. Leveraging data from the Project on Human Development of Chicago Neighborhoods+ (PHDCN+) linked with the Invisible Institute’s Citizens Police Data Project, we first characterize the extent to which PHDCN+ participants were vicariously exposed to abusive policing practices in their neighborhoods during childhood and adolescence. We then carry out an analysis assessing the association between the duration of neighborhood exposure to police misconduct among study participants and their contemporary perceptions of the police and the law as measured by legal cynicism. Implications for understanding the enduring neighborhood legacy of police misconduct and its role in the reproduction of legal cynicism into adulthood are discussed.

Authors

• Thiago R. Oliveira, University of Oxford

• David S. Kirk, University of Oxford

• Charles C. Lanfear, University of Oxford

• Robert J. Sampson, Harvard University