Police Contact and the Legal Socialization of Urban Teens

Contemporary American policing has routinized involuntary police contacts with young people through frequent, sometimes intrusive investigative stops. Personal experience with the police has the potential to corrode adolescents’ relationships with law and skew law-related behaviors. We use the Fragi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:RSF : Russell Sage Foundation journal of the social sciences 2019-02, Vol.5 (1), p.26-49
Main Authors: Geller, Amanda, Fagan, Jeffrey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Child development
Cynicism
Deference
Drug use
Educational attainment
Families & family life
Injustice
Involuntary
Law
legal cynicism
legal socialization
Neighborhoods
Part I. Surveillance
Personal experiences
Police
policing
Procedural justice
Racial discrimination
Racial groups
Schools
Social exclusion
Socialization
Teenagers
Well being
Young adults
Youth
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Summary:Contemporary American policing has routinized involuntary police contacts with young people through frequent, sometimes intrusive investigative stops. Personal experience with the police has the potential to corrode adolescents’ relationships with law and skew law-related behaviors. We use the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to estimate how adolescents’ experiences with the police shape their legal socialization. We find that both personal and vicarious police contact are associated with increased legal cynicism. Associations are present across racial groups and are not explained by teens’ behaviors, school settings, or family backgrounds. Legal cynicism is amplified in teens reporting intrusive contact but diminished among teens reporting experiences characterized by procedural justice. Our findings suggest that aggressive policing risks weakening teens’ deference to law and legal authorities.
ISSN:2377-8253
2377-8261
2377-8261
DOI:10.7758/RSF.2019.5.1.02