Procedural (In)Justice as Inclusivity and Marginalization: Evidence from a Longitudinal Sample of Mexican-American Adolescents

• Date: 01 February 2022
• Published date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/00224278211003927
• Subject Matter: Articles

Original Research Article

Procedural (In)Justice

as Inclusivity and

Marginalization:

Evidence from a

Longitudinal Sample of

Mexican-American

Adolescents

Andrew J. Thompson

1

and Theodore Wilson

1

Abstract

Objectives: Treatment by law enforcement officers, as representatives of the

state that interact with individual citizens, may signal to individuals their

political and social inclusion within society. Hispanics, as the largest minority

group in the country that oftentimes must navigate two cultural identities,

may be especially sensitive to the treatment of police. We test the group

engagement model’s implication that procedural justice—or lack thereof—

may promote or hinder attachment to the United States and/or Mexico

among Latino/a adolescents and young adults. Methods: Using a fixed effects

panel design with a subsample of Mexican Americans from the Pathways to

Desistance Study, we examine whether changes in subjective procedural

justice evaluations of the police are related to changes in National

1

School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of New York, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Andrew J. Thompson, School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of

New York, New York, NY, USA.

Email: ajthompson@albany.edu

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

ªThe Author(s) 2021

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00224278211003927

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2022, Vol. 59(1) 44–81

identification. Results: Changes in procedural justice perceptions are signif-

icantly related to changes in Mexican identificat ion, whereas procedural

justice is not related to changes in Anglo identification. Although, consistent

with segmented assimilation theory, the relationships between changes in

procedural justice and Mexican/Anglo identification may be stronger among

participants born in the United States. Conclusions: The findings are generally

consistent with the group enga gement model of procedural j ustice and

suggest procedural injustice may alienate Hispanics.

Keywords

procedural justice, group engagement, immigration, identification,

longitudinal

An important idea throughout the history of criminology, as is posited in

labeling theories of crime (e.g., Chambliss 1973), is that identity is a reflex-

ive process that is shaped through social interaction (Adler and Adler 1989;

Cooley 1902). The importance of identity has typically been emphasized as

a function of interactions among individuals with the importance of crim-

inal justice institutions being limited to generating negative labels that

shape social interaction between individuals (Becker 1963; Lemert 1951;

see also Denver, Pickett, and Bushway 2017). Scholars have recently, how-

ever, suggested interactions with the state and its institutions themselves

may affect individual identity because these interactions may contain cues

signaling their status and value within society (Bradford 2014; Lerman and

Weaver 2014; Weaver and Lerman 2010).

Understanding the state’s ability to mold identity via the criminal justice

system is especially important in the context of Latino/a immigration.

Latino/as are the largest minority group in the country, and their interac-

tions with the criminal justice system, particularly the police, may be salient

sources of their felt inclusion or exclusion from a local or national identity

because of the growing tendency for law enforcement to enforce immigra-

tion law (Hern´andez 2013). In other words, the police may be able to either

promote felt inclusion within the US among Latino/as through fair a nd

respectful treatment, or conversely hinder their attachment to the United

States with disrespectful treatment. We explore this possibility using a sub-

sample of 330 self-identified Mexican Americans from the Pathways to

Desistance study. The Pathways to Desistance study followed these individ-

uals from adolescence into early adulthood. We leverage the longitudinal

45

Thompson and Wilson

measurement of this sample with an emphasis upon within-individual

changes in procedural justice and acculturation to examine the role fair and

respectful treatment by police officers has on identification with the US and

Mexico among Mexican Americans.

Evidence that the nature and quality of police contact influences identi-

fication with the US and Mexico among Latino/as might provide insight

into the effects of immigration policies that many states have adopted in the

last two decades (Pierotte, Xie, and Baumer 2018). Some scholars have

accused policies that combine law and immigration enforcement, fittingly

termed “crimmigration,” of isolating Latino/as because they engender an

earnest fear and concern among Latino/as that they or those they care about

could be deported through these programs (Coleman an d Kocher 2011;

Stuesse and Coleman 2014). There is also concern that crimmigration can

undermine public safety. Immigrants typically commit less crime, which

may be due to viewing authorities as more legitimate and being less cynical

toward the law (Kirk et al. 2012; Piquero et al. 2016; Sampson, Morenoff,

and Raudenbush 2005). However, there is evidence that aggressive and

discriminatory police practices may undermine the relatively high regard

immigrants have for law enforcement (Rios 2011; Renfigo and Fratello

2015), which may result in higher crime rates among Latino/as than would

otherwise be the case if police treatment leads to less compliance. Further,

promoting identification with a national or local identity, because it

encourages behavior and roles that benefit the group, may prevent crime

(Bradford 2014, Bradford et al. 2015). As an indirect pathway influencing

community safety, law enforcement policies that double as immigration

enforcement may discourage crime reporting (Xie and Baumer 2019). Law

enforcement practices and policies that disincentivize crime reporting may

be a consequence of less legitimacy or more legal cynicism that results from

a generalized fear that police contact could result in the deportation for an

individual, a loved one, or even simply an acquaintance (Kirk et al. 2012).

As a fundamental concern for the inclusion of all persons within our democ-

racy, the fairness and quality of police trea tment may signal to Latino/

as either their marginalization or, through the application of voice and

equality, that they have equal political and social standing.

Latino/a Experiences with Procedural Justice

Latinos/as are not a homogenous group, but rather an ethnicity character-

ized by a plurality of nationalities and cultures, each of which may have

different opinions of the police (Menj´ıvar and Bejarano 2004; Weitzer

46 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 59(1)