Determinants of Legal Cynicism in Germany. A multilevel analysis

• In Event: Legitimacy

Abstract

The role of the legal system is to define the basic rules of social interaction. It is particularly problematic for the functioning of the legal system if it is denied legitimacy by part of the population. According to Sampson and Bartusch (1998), this kind of "anomie", in which the authority of the law to define rules of conduct and norms is not recognised and is perceived as psychologically non-binding, is called Legal Cynicism (LC). LC can be understood both as a cultural framework in which scepticism towards the law, the legal system and the police is expressed, and as part of a social system that is determined not only by individual but also by social or contextual circumstances (McCarthy et al., 2020). When LC increases in a society, this poses a threat to the functioning of the state and democracy. In order to understand the concept of LC and influence its levels in the population, it is essential to identify individual and contextual factors that promote or inhibit LC (Bertram et al. 2024). There is a well-established international debate on which individual, social and spatial factors influence LC, but this has hardly been taken up in German-speaking countries. Furthermore, most existing studies have measured LC as an individual-level characteristic (Oliveira & Jackson, 2022). The data base consists of n = 1900 individuals from N = 37 City districts in Dortmund (Germany).

Authors

• Joachim Häfele, Police Academy of Lower Saxony/Institute for Crime and Security Research

• Sebastian Kurtenbach, FH Münster

• Fee-Elisabeth Bertram, Universität Kiel - Fachbereich Psychologie

• Armin Küchler, Bielefeld University/ FH Münster