Antecedents of legal cynicism unpacked: The impact of parental incarceration, race, and ACEs on its development

• Published in: Journal of criminal justice 2023-09, Vol.88, p.102116, Article 102116
• Main Authors: Clark, Miriam, Watts, Stephen, McCuddy, Timothy, McLeod, Ellen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ACEs; Adolescent police stops; Legal cynicism; Parental incarceration
• ISSN: 0047-2352; 1873-6203
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2023.102116

The recent rise in homicide has led to ongoing debate on the role of law enforcement due to research that suggests cynicism in the legal system can be criminogenic and lead to violence. Understanding how and why legal cynicism develops is important to improve police-community relationships and to lower crime. The current study uses a national data set and structural equation modeling to understand how familial factors such as parental incarceration, experiencing adverse childhood experiences, and youth race are predictive of legal cynicism and how this might be mediated through experiencing police stops. Findings suggest race, parental incarceration, and ACEs are all directly predictive of police stops and indirectly predictive of legal cynicism. Only race and parental incarceration directly predict legal cynicism. Given the current concerns over rising violent crime rates in urban cities and the quality and nature of police-citizen interactions, our results provide a timely analysis of risk factors contributing to the development of legal cynicism. Findings suggest that, not only must we be concerned with the well-documented impact of police contact, we should expand our view to include experiences with parental incarceration. Implications for practitioners and criminal justice professionals are discussed. •Understanding how and why legal cynicism develops is important to improve police-community relationships and to lower crime.•Findings suggest that, for teens, identifying as Black is directly predictive of being stopped by police and directly predictive of exhibiting legal cynicism.•Findings also suggest that experiencing parental incarceration as a child is directly predictive of being stopped by police and directly predictive of exhibiting legal cynicism as a teenager.•Findings suggest that experiencing other adverse childhood experiences (apart from parental incarceration) is directly predictive of being stopped by police but not directly predictive of exhibiting legal cynicism as a teenager.•Being stopped by police is directly predictive of exhibiting legal cynicism as a teenager. Furthermore, identifying as Black, experiencing parental incarceration and experiencing adverse childhood experiences are all indirectly predictive of legal cynicism.