Pathways to Legal Cynicism in Mexican Adolescents: A Three-Dimensional Measurement Approach

Legal cynicism: Independent construct or downstream manifestation of antisocial constructs? New evidence

Objectives: This study explores the social and developmental antecedents of legal cynicism. This study comprises a range of indicators organized into four domains—bonds to institutions, predispositions, experiences, and delinquent involvement—that bear on theoretically plausible mechanisms involved in the development of legal cynicism. Methods: This study examines four pathways to legal cynicism using data from two waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths ( N = 1,226). Ordinary least squares (OLS) procedures are used to regress legal cynicism at t2 (age 15) on social and psychological characteristics measured at t1 (age 13), and retrospective variables measured at t2. Baseline legal cynicism was included as a covariate in all models. Results: The results show that self-reported delinquency is the strongest predictor of legal cynicism. There is also evidence that alienation from society, negative experiences with police, and association with deviant peers can foster legal cynicism. Conclusions: This study shows that legal cynicism is to a small extent the result of alienation from social institutions and negative experiences with the police. To a much larger degree, legal cynicism seems to represent a cognitive neutralization technique used to justify one’s previous self-reported delinquency.

Legal socialization researchers have been paying more attention to legal cynicism, but the manner in which the concept was operationalized varied greatly and measurement properties of existing scales did not always meet traditional thresholds. The objective of this study was to construct and test a multidimensional legal cynicism scale with strong psychometric properties. We conducted 2 independent studies. In Study 1, we used survey data from a university-based sample (N = 502) to estimate a promax-rotated exploratory factor model. In Study 2, we used survey data from a second university-based sample (N = 587) in a confirmatory factor model to replicate the findings from Study 1. Results from both studies indicated that legal cynicism possessed a 3-dimensional structure (i.e., legal antipathy, low legal legitimacy, and legal corruption) and was correlated with criminal offending. The new legal cynicism scale possessed strong psychometric properties and predictive validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescents experience more police-initiated contacts resulting from relatively minor infractions than any other group, and often these interactions do not result in notable legal consequences. However, such interactions may have long-term consequences for adolescent perceptions of the justice system. Using data from the age 15 wave of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, our study examines associations between situational and process features of police contact and legal cynicism in adolescence, accounting for demographic characteristics, self-reported delinquency, neighborhood context, and stop outcome. Relative to youth who experienced only vicarious police contact, youth who had direct or both direct and vicarious police contact reported higher levels of legal cynicism. Youth perceptions of procedural justice were associated with lower legal cynicism. Situational features of police contact such as harsh language and frisking were related to higher legal cynicism. Directions for future research, including the need for longitudinal research on this topic, are discussed.

Legal socialization and subcultural norms: Examining linkages between perceptions of procedural justice, legal cynicism, and the code of the street

Analysis of demographic, psychological and cultural aspects associated with the practice of sexting in Mexican and Spanish adolescents

ABSTRACTTo address increases in substance use among Mexican adolescents, particularly females, US prevention programs are being adapted to the Mexican cultural context. Understanding how responses to substance offers by Mexican adolescents are shaped by gender and relationships to those making offers is an important step in the adaptation process. Using data from Guadalajara, Mexico middle schools (N = 431), this pilot study tested for gender differences in the use of several drug resistance strategies commonly taught in US substance abuse prevention interventions. Results indicated that the drug-resistance strategies of Mexican early adolescents differ by gender, type of substance offered, and the youth's relationship to the offeror. Contrary to previous research on older Mexican adolescents, in this sample, females received more substance offers from age peers than males did, and employed a wider repertoire of drug-resistance strategies, including active strategies such as direct refusals. Gender differences in use of the strategies persisted after controlling for number of offers received. There were gender differences in the conditional effects of greater exposure to offers. A larger volume of alcohol and cigarette offers predicted females' use of direct strategies more strongly than for males, but less strongly than males for marijuana offers. Females' use of drug resistance strategies was more strongly associated with offers from family adults, siblings, and cousins, while males' use of strategies was predicted more strongly by offers from nonfamily adults. Interpretations and prevention implications are discussed in light of changing gender norms in Mexico and gendered patterns of substance use.

Confianza Institucional y Social: Una Relación Insoslayable

PurposeProcedural justice literature argues that when people perceive criminal justice authorities as procedurally just, they are more likely to comply with the law. Although procedural justice in community supervision has received some empirical attention, few previous studies have examined factors that might explain the relationship between procedural justice and recidivism.MethodsEmploying structural equation modelling, the current longitudinal study tests relationships between procedural justice in encounters with community supervision officers, legal cynicism and recidivism among a sample of 1011 adults on community supervision.ResultsControlling for demographics and criminal history, procedural justice is negatively related to legal cynicism, which is positively related to recidivism. The findings demonstrate an indirect negative effect from officer procedural justice – via legal cynicism – to recidivism, suggesting the relationship between procedural justice and recidivism is explained by attitudes towards the law.ConclusionsHow parole and probation officers interact with their clients impacts attitudes towards the law and, ultimately, clients' likelihood of recidivism.

This study examined the extent to which the validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent identified Mexican adolescents who were instructed to fake bad. Validity scales data were used to differentiate between nonclinical adolescents instructed to fake bad and both clinical and nonclinical adolescents who received standard instructions. Participants were 59 male and 87 female Mexican high school students and 59 male and 87 female Mexican adolescents from clinical settings. This is the first study onfaking with adolescents in Mexico. The F, Fl, and F2 Scales and the F-K index discriminated adequately between the three different groups. Results were similar to those previously reportedfor adults and adolescents in Mexico and the United States. High positive and negative predictive powers and overall hit rates were obtained in this study. Higher cut scores were needed to discriminate between the groups of girls than between the groups of boys.

Exploring potential for selection bias in using survey data to estimate the association between institutional trust and depression

The present work tests mediators of the link between adverse environmental factors and political violence support. Specifically, we investigated if depression and legal cynicism can mediate the association between lack of family cohesion, parental violence, and discrimination on one side and political violence support on the other side. Hypotheses were tested on a large and ethnically diverse dataset of German ninth graders, employing multi-group structural equation modeling. For both genders, we find that lack of family cohesion and parental violence were directly and/or indirectly related to political violence support. While legal cynicism mediated the link between lack of family cohesion and parental violence and political violence support, we found no moderating effect of depression in any of the tested models. These findings indicate that adolescents from dysfunctional families and with cynical attitudes towards legal norms may be at risk to endorse political violence. Prevention efforts that enhance family functioning, social-cognitive abilities, and the internalization of legal norms may deter youth from supporting political violence.

How COVID-19 illness perceptions and individual shocks are associated with trust during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, France, Germany, and South Africa

BackgroundTrust as a measure of social capital has been documented to be associated with health. Mediating factors for this association are not well investigated. Harmful alcohol consumption is believed to be one of the mediating factors. We hypothesized that low social capital defined as low institutional trust is associated with harmful alcohol consumption.MethodsData from the 2006 Swedish National Survey of Public Health were used for analyses. The total study population comprised a randomly selected representative sample of 26.305 men and 30.584 women aged 16–84 years. Harmful alcohol consumption was measured using a short version the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), developed and recommended by the World Health Organisation. Low institutional trust was defined based on trust in ten main welfare institutions in Sweden.ResultsIndependent of age, country of birth and socioeconomic circumstances, low institutional trust was associated with increased likelihood of harmful alcohol consumption (OR (men) = 1.52, 95% CI 1.34–1.70) and (OR (women) = 1.50, 95% CI 1.35–1.66). This association was marginally altered after adjustment for interpersonal trust.ConclusionFindings of the present study show that lack of trust in institutions is associated with increased likelihood of harmful alcohol consumption. We hope that findings in the present study will inspire similar studies in other contexts and contribute to more knowledge on the association between institutional trust and lifestyle patterns. This evidence may contribute to policies and strategies related to alcohol consumption.

IntroductionThis paper accomplishes two goals. First, we assesses the measurement invariance of legal cynicism among adolescents in São Paulo, Brazil, Montevideo, Uruguay, and Zurich, Switzerland. Second, we evaluate a series of social and individual antecedents that are expected to influence legal cynicism across contexts. MethodsThis paper first evaluates the measurement invariance of legal cynicism using Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis with three randomized clustered samples of adolescents in Zurich (n = 1447), São Paulo (n = 2680) and Montevideo (n = 2204). Second, we assessed the correlates for legal cynicism in each city using structural equation modelling techniques. ResultsThe results demonstrated metric invariance, but not scalar invariance among adolescents in São Paulo, Zurich, and Montevideo. We were able to establish partial measurement invariance for legal cynicism in São Paulo and Zurich, and therefore proceeded with the comparison of latent means and antecedents. The results show that on average legal cynicism is higher in Zurich, but that the size and strength of antecedents were similar across cities. Low self-control was by far the strongest correlate of legal cynicism. ConclusionsOverall, our results suggest that current operationalizations of legal cynicism may not be rooted in social structural context and experiences with legal authorities, but rather reflect how individuals interpret legal boundaries and dispositions towards rule-breaking. Researchers must reconsider how legal cynicism fits into models of legal socialization, and whether developmental models of self-control may help us understand the origins and nature of legal cynicism, as it is currently measured.