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.
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