Why do children cooperate with police? The nexus of the authority relations and cognitive developmental perspectives

Abstract

Police must rely on the public’s cooperation; however, youths’ views of police are historically low. To understand the dynamics of these intergroup relations, this study integrates two theoretical perspectives: the cognitive developmental perspective, which posits that age-graded cognitive enhancements enable children to begin critically evaluating police; and the group engagement model, which suggests that views of police impact law-related behavior. Utilizing a sample of 424 community youth (37.97% Hispanic/Latinx, 19.81% Native American), this study tested four novel hypotheses: H1: Age is negatively associated with youths’ willingness to cooperate (WTC) with police; H2: Age is negatively associated with normative alignment with police; H3: Normative alignment is positively associated with WTC; and H4: Normative alignment is more strongly associated with older youths’ WTC. All four hypotheses were supported. The article discusses the implications of both the integration of these theoretical perspectives and the findings for understanding the effects of these intergroup dynamics.