TY - JOUR
T1 - Police legitimacy
T2 - identifying developmental trends and whether youths’ perceptions can be changed
AU - Fine, Adam D.
AU - Padilla, Kathleen E.
AU - Tom, Kelsey E.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the schools, students, and officers for participating, the school district officials for their support, Julie Hudash and the Team Kids organization for orchestrating data collection, and the research assistants from the Youth Justice Lab at Arizona State University?for their dedication. These studies would not have been possible without these collaborations.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Objective: Examine youths’ perceptions of police legitimacy. Study one establishes age-graded trends in perceptions from childhood into adolescence. Study two tests whether a structured, in-school, non-enforcement-related program involving repeated prosocial exposure to police can improve youths’ perceptions of police legitimacy. Methods: In study one, a cross-sectional sample (N = 959) of youth ages 7 to 14 was used to assess age-graded perceptions of police legitimacy. In study two, a 4-school, randomized controlled trial was conducted in Compton, California (N = 499). Results: Age-graded differences in police legitimacy perceptions vary by race, but generally begin declining during late childhood. The program significantly improved youths’ perceptions of police legitimacy. Conclusion: Racial differences in perceptions of police legitimacy can be traced to childhood, and perceptions of law enforcement appear to begin declining during childhood. Further, repeated exposure to law enforcement officials in a positive, non-enforcement capacity may improve youths’ legitimacy perceptions.
AB - Objective: Examine youths’ perceptions of police legitimacy. Study one establishes age-graded trends in perceptions from childhood into adolescence. Study two tests whether a structured, in-school, non-enforcement-related program involving repeated prosocial exposure to police can improve youths’ perceptions of police legitimacy. Methods: In study one, a cross-sectional sample (N = 959) of youth ages 7 to 14 was used to assess age-graded perceptions of police legitimacy. In study two, a 4-school, randomized controlled trial was conducted in Compton, California (N = 499). Results: Age-graded differences in police legitimacy perceptions vary by race, but generally begin declining during late childhood. The program significantly improved youths’ perceptions of police legitimacy. Conclusion: Racial differences in perceptions of police legitimacy can be traced to childhood, and perceptions of law enforcement appear to begin declining during childhood. Further, repeated exposure to law enforcement officials in a positive, non-enforcement capacity may improve youths’ legitimacy perceptions.
KW - Legal socialization
KW - Perceptions of police
KW - Police legitimacy
KW - Procedural justice
KW - Youth
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U2 - 10.1007/s11292-020-09438-7
DO - 10.1007/s11292-020-09438-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089296051
SN - 1573-3750
VL - 18
SP - 67
EP - 87
JO - Journal of Experimental Criminology
JF - Journal of Experimental Criminology
IS - 1
ER -