Youth’s relationships with legal and non-legal authorities in shaping legal attitudes and delinquent behavior: a study of legal socialization in Portugal

• In Event: Legitimacy of authority figures and legal socialization in adolescents across different sociocultural contexts

Abstract

Legal socialization has been receiving an increasing attention in criminological research, addressing how different spheres of authority influence youth’s attitudes towards the legal system and how those attitudes, in turn, shape their (non)compliant behavior with the law. Moreover, perceived procedural (in)justice of authorities when dealing with children and adolescents during their life-course is pointed as a central aspect in shaping those attitudes and behavior. Thus, the fairness of procedures during the interactions with youths should be a primary concern for a variety of authorities in different institutional contexts, given its crucial influence on young people’s present, as well as future, law-abiding behavior. Although studies on the legal socialization of young people have been conducted in different countries, to the best of our knowledge, in Portugal are non-existent. Through the administration of a self-reported questionnaire to a sample of high school students in Portugal, this ongoing research aims to understand whether perceived procedurally (un)fair interactions with three figures of authority (parents, teachers, and police) influence young people’s levels of legal cynicism and perceived police legitimacy, and whether these two variables explain self-reported delinquency. Specific regression models are estimated to examine the impact of each authority on legal cynicism and perceived police legitimacy, as well as delinquent behavior. The key results of this study will be presented and discussed, and the contributes to juvenile delinquency prevention will be highlighted

Authors

• Patrícia Damas, School of Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Porto

• Samuel Moreira, CIJ (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Justice) - School of Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Porto, Portugal | CEJEIA (Center for Legal, Economic, International and Environmental Studies) - Lusíada University, Portugal

• Carla Sofia Cardoso, Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Crime Justice and Security (CJS) - School of Criminology, Faculty of Law of the University of Porto