Low Self-control and Legal Cynicism among At-Risk Youth: An Investigation into Direct and Vicarious Police Contact

• Author: Dylan B. Jackson,Alexander Testa,Michael G. Vaughn
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0022427820929735
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Low Self-control

and Legal Cynicism

among At-Risk Youth:

An Investigation into

Direct and Vicarious

Police Contact

Dylan B. Jackson

1

, Alexander Testa

2

,

and Michael G. Vaughn

3,4

Abstract

Objectives: This study explores the nexus between low self-control and legal

cynicism among a recent sample of at-risk youth while accounting for var-

ious features of direct and vicarious police stops. Methods: Analyses are

based on data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which

employs a national sample of urban-born, at-risk youth. Results: A uniquely

potent association between low self-control and legal cynicism emerged

across samples with and without exposure to vicarious or direct police

stops. Furthermore, among youth exposed to police stops, the link

between low self-control and legal cynicism was largely robust to

1

Johns Hopkins University, MD, USA

2

The University of Texas at San Antonio, TX, USA

3

Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA

4

Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

Corresponding Author:

Dylan B. Jackson, Bloomberg School of Public Health Johns Hopkins University 615, N. Wolfe

St. Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.

Email: dylan.jackson@jhu.edu

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

2020, Vol. 57(6) 741-783

ªThe Author(s) 2020

Article reuse guidelines:

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DOI: 10.1177/0022427820929735

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perceptions/features of these stops, including the degree of officer intru-

siveness, arrest, perceptions of procedural justice, and youth feelings of

social stigma following the stop. Conclusions: Programmatic efforts that both

enhance the early development of self -control through mindfulness and

curriculum-based interventions (e.g., Promoting Alternative THinking Stra-

tegies) and facilitate trauma-informed policing may be beneficial in curtailing

the development of legal cynicism.

Keywords

self-control, legal cynicism, policing, intrusiveness, procedural justice

Social scientists have long been interested in the development of attitudes

about the law and criminal justice institutions. This area of inquiry has

become increasingly salient in recent years in light of several high-profile

incidents of violence stemming from police–citizen encounters and growing

attention around intrusive policing tactics, such as stop-and-frisk (Geller

and Fagan 2019; Gelman, Fagan, and Kiss 2007; Meares 2014; Tyler,

Fagan, and Geller 2014). In particular, there has been a substantial increase

in research on the development of legal cynicism—a state in which the laws

or rules of society are no longer binding over the behavior of individuals

(Sampson and Bartusch 1998).

Attitudes toward the police and the law play a multifaceted and impor-

tant role in key criminological areas, influencing criminal offending (Fagan

and Piquero 2007; Kaiser and Reisig 2019; Reisig, Wolfe, and Holtfreter

2011) and the reporting of crimes to the police (Carr, Napolitano, and

Keating 2007; Desmond, Papachristos, and Kirk 2020; Slocum et al.

2010). Accordingly, understanding both the personal and the social factors

linked to the emergence of legal cynicism has widespread implications for

reducing crime and violence as well as improving police–community rela-

tions. Despite the centrality of legal cynicism to core criminological issues,

our understanding of how legally cynical views develop remains somewhat

limited (Nivette et al. 2015).

While much of the empirical focus has been devoted to identifying the

social correlates of legal cynicism, less attention has been directed toward

the role of personality characteristics such as low self-control. Although

self-control theory (Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990) was originally concep-

tualized to explain offending and deviant behaviors, scholarship has

revealed that the range of characteristics associated with low self-control

742 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 57(6)

(e.g., hedonism, risk-seeking, short-temper) are relevant for understanding

interactions between individuals and the criminal justice system (Beaver

et al. 2009; DeLisi and Berg 2006; Mastrofski, Reisig , and McCluskey

2002) as well as how one perceives criminal justice actors and outcomes

of encounters with legal authorities (Fagan and Tyler 2005; Jackson, Testa,

and Vaughn 2020; Piquero, Gomez-Smith, and Langton 2004; Reisig et al.

2011; Wolfe 2011). Thus, self-control theory has far-reaching implications

for understanding how individuals interact with and perceive criminal jus-

tice institutions.

While previous scholarship has documented a link between key person-

ality characteristics such as low self-control and the development of legal

cynicism (Fagan and Tyler 2005; Gifford and Reisig 2019; Kaiser and

Reisig 2019; Nivette et al. 2015; Nivette, Eisner, and Ribeaud 2020; Reisig

et al. 2011), there are a number of key theoretical and methodological

shortcomings that characterize this body o f literature. First, few studies

have examined whether self-control is associated with legal cynicism dur-

ing mid-adolescence, which is a crucial time period durin g which legal

attitudes are still impressionable (Trinkner and Cohn 2014; Trinkner and

Tyler 2016), and the odds of criminal justice contact are elevated (Hirschi

and Gottfredson 1983; Steffensmeier and Ulmer 2002). Second, most

research examines a direct link between self-control and legal cynicism

without fully considering youths’ history of vicarious and/or direct police

contact. This leaves open the question of whether taking these encounters

with the police into account might render th e association between self-

control and legal cynicism spurious (Fagan and Tyler 2005; Gifford and

Reisig 2019; Reisig et al. 2011). Furthermore, prior resear ch finds that

individuals who are low in self-control are often emotionally dysregulated

and struggle to cope with stressful situations (Calkins 1994; Caspi et al.

1994; Gross 1999; Posner and Rothbart 2000). Given the psycho logical

stress that can stem from police contact under certain adverse circumstances

(Del Toro et al. 2019; Geller et al. 2014; Jackson et al. 2019; Sundaresh

et al. 2020), it remains possible that self-control may not consistently pre-

dict legal cynicism across groups with differential exposure to police stops.

Finally, research accounting for prior police contact generally employs

broad, global measures (Nivette et al. 2015, 2020) without considering

highly relevant features of a given police encounter (e.g., procedural justice

perceptions, police intrusiveness, and so on; Geller and Fagan 2019; Tyler

et al. 2014). Addressing this oversight has important implications for this

body of literature, as social psychological research finds that situation-

Jackson et al. 743