The Attitude of Juveniles toward the Legal Institution

Abstract

A persistent theme in the voluminous current literature on the condition of modern youth is their supposed adverse attitude toward law and its enforcement. This lack of respect for authority, as it is also sometimes phrased, is often associated in some manner with explanations for deviant behavior among juveniles. Much of the data upon which such statements are based appear to have been gathered through only casual observations of highly selected populations of juveniles. Although a perusal of the literature reveals something of the nature of the anti-legal institution attitude, there are numerous conflicting observations and findings about it. Most authors agree that there is greater animosity toward the legal institution in the United States than in certain other advanced societies,' but there is wide disagreement on an explanation for this difference.2 Furthermore, there appears to be some question about the direction of change, if any, in the attitude,3 some believing the negative attitude is diminishing, others that it is increasing both in intensity and pervasiveness. Much of the concern