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Legal cynicism is a domain of legal socialization defined by a perception that the legal system and law enforcement agents are "illegitimate, unresponsive, and ill equipped to ensure public safety." It is related to police legitimacy, and the two serve as important ways for researchers to study citizens' perceptions of law enforcement.

Definitions

Sampson and Bartusch (1998) defined legal cynicism as ""anomie" about law". Based on Sampson & Bartusch's work, and on that of Leo Srole, Piquero et al. (2005) defined it based on respondents' answers to a five-question survey. In the survey, respondents were asked to rank, on a four-point scale, the extent to which they agreed with each of these statements:

1. Laws are meant to be broken,
2. It is okay to do anything you want,
3. There are no right or wrong ways to make money,
4. If I have a fight with someone, it is no one else's business, and
5. A person has to live without thinking about the future.

Causes and correlates

Legal cynicism can be exacerbated when police engage in aggressive misconduct in a community, which can lead to greater violence and less cooperation between the community's citizens and the police. It has been found to be higher in neighborhoods with higher levels of concentrated disadvantage, even after controlling for demographic factors and crime rates. The strongest predictor of legal cynicism is self-reported delinquency.

Effects

Legal cynicism and legitimacy both have significant effects on criminal offending, even after accounting for self-control. Legal cynicism is also associated with lower rates of desistance from intimate partner violence, higher homicide rates, and higher recidivism rates among released prisoners. It has also been found to affect parents' assessments of their adolescent children's violent behavior.

See also

• Police perjury
• The talk (racism in the United States)

References

1. Kirk, David S.; Matsuda, Mauri (2011-05-01). "Legal Cynicism, Collective Efficacy, and the Ecology of Arrest". Criminology. 49 (2): 443–472. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2011.00226.x. ISSN 1745-9125. S2CID 31487782.
2. ^ Reisig, Michael D.; Scott E. Wolfe; Kristy Holtfreter (2011-12-01). "Legal Cynicism, Legitimacy, and Criminal Offending: The Nonconfounding Effect of Low Self-Control". Criminal Justice and Behavior. 38 (12): 1265–1279. doi:10.1177/0093854811424707. ISSN 0093-8548. S2CID 145230048.
3. "Police Legitimacy and Legal Cynicism: Why They Matter and How to Measure in Your Community" (PDF). Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program.
4. ^ Sampson, Robert J.; Bartusch, Dawn Jeglum (1998). "Legal Cynicism and (Subcultural?) Tolerance of Deviance: The Neighborhood Context of Racial Differences". Law & Society Review. 32 (4): 777–804. doi:10.2307/827739. JSTOR 827739. S2CID 144846460.
5. Srole, Leo (1956). "Social Integration and Certain Corollaries: An Exploratory Study". American Sociological Review. 21 (6): 709–716. doi:10.2307/2088422. JSTOR 2088422.
6. PIQUERO, ALEX R.; FAGAN, JEFFREY; MULVEY, EDWARD P.; STEINBERG, LAURENCE; ODGERS, CANDICE (2005-09-01). "Developmental Trajectories of Legal Socialization Among Serious Adolescent Offenders". The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. 96 (1): 267–298. ISSN 0091-4169. PMC 2776646. PMID 19915683.
7. Abt, Thomas (2016-09-30). "The surge in violent crime is overblown — but here's how to combat it". Vox. Retrieved 2017-12-30.
8. Amy E. Nivette; Manuel Eisner; Tina Malti; Denis Ribeaud (2015-03-01). "The Social and Developmental Antecedents of Legal Cynicism" (PDF). Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. 52 (2): 270–298. doi:10.1177/0022427814557038. hdl:10072/172567. ISSN 0022-4278. S2CID 145696864.
9. Emery, Clifton R.; Jolley, Jennifer M.; Wu, Shali (2011-12-01). "Desistance from Intimate Partner Violence: the Role of Legal Cynicism, Collective Efficacy, and Social Disorganization in Chicago Neighborhoods". American Journal of Community Psychology. 48 (3–4): 373–383. doi:10.1007/s10464-010-9362-5. ISSN 1573-2770. PMID 20963479. S2CID 23574976.
10. Kirk, David S.; Papachristos, Andrew V. (2011-01-01). "Cultural Mechanisms and the Persistence of Neighborhood Violence". American Journal of Sociology. 116 (4): 1190–1233. doi:10.1086/655754. ISSN 0002-9602. PMID 21648250. S2CID 12686833.
11. Visher, Christy (2004-01-01). "Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry: Maryland Pilot Study: Findings from Baltimore". Urban Institute. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
12. Soller, Brian; Jackson, Aubrey L.; Browning, Christopher R. (2014-07-01). "Legal Cynicism and Parental Appraisals of Adolescent Violence". The British Journal of Criminology. 54 (4): 568–591. doi:10.1093/bjc/azu027. ISSN 0007-0955. PMC 4055156. PMID 24932013.

• Sociology of law
• Legal concepts