Mediating the Peer Delinquency–Future Offending Relationship with Legal Cynicism and Moral Neutralization

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study tested the “perception before belief” hypothesis which holds that perception generally precedes belief in promoting future delinquency. It was reasoned that legal cynicism, a facet of procedural justice perceptions should precede moral neutralization beliefs in predicting future delinquency but not vice versa. The two pathways were tested in a sample of 1,354 (1,170 male, 284 female) justice-involved youth with histories of serious delinquency in a path analysis of a two-mediator model using cross-lagged mediating variables. The research hypothesis received partial support in this study. Thus, while the “perception before belief” pathway (peer delinquency → legal cynicism → moral neutralization → delinquency) achieved significance and the “belief before perception” pathway (peer delinquency → moral neutralization → legal cynicism → delinquency) did not, the two pathways were not significantly different from one another. The current results support the proposition that perception precedes belief when it comes to predicting delinquency.