Perceptions of Legal Authorities in a Longitudinal Study of Adjudicated Youth

Abstract

While perceptions of the legitimacy of formal authority have been found to influence offending, little is known about the extent to which such perceptions influence the related outcome of victimization. This study addressed this gap by examining how changes in legitimacy affected victimization both within-and between-individuals. This study used 7 waves of the Pathways to Desistance data (n = 1310; 13.85% female; age range 14-22). Youth who have committed serious offenses were surveyed at 6-month intervals during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. In the full sample, the effects of legitimacy on both victimization and offending remained largely stable over time within individuals. Sensitivity analyses revealed that more positive perceptions of legitimacy significantly reduce offending for boys and reduce victimization for girls during the developmental period under study. Consistent with prior research, between-individual differences appear to be more important than within-individual change for explaining both offending and victimization. The implications of the results for theory, future research, and early intervention for high-risk youth are discussed.

Los efectos de la inteligencia emocional, la legitimidad y la disuasión en la conducta antisocial

“…En este punto, el modelo de regulación basado en procesos, de Tyler, encuentra una asociación entre la legitimidad observada, la percepción de los individuos sobre la justicia procedimental de las autoridades legales, y sus decisiones sobre obedecer la ley o cumplir las normas u órdenes de las autoridades; según esta, a la hora de cumplir o no las leyes, los individuos evalúan la justicia procedimental empleada por las autoridades legales (Nix, 2017;Tyler, 2006). Por lo general, se ha encontrado que la percepción positiva de las autoridades reduce la delincuencia en jóvenes (Pusch et al, 2021).…”

Natasha R. Magson Receives Emerging Scholar Best Article Award, 2022

“…Many of those articles focused on mental health (Graupensperger et al, 2021;Royuela-Colomer et al, 2021;Jarman et al, 2021;Murray et al, 2021;Lorenzo et al, 2021;Delaruelle et al, 2021). Others addressed issues of diversity (Dull et al, 2021;Ioverno & Russell, 2021) as well as identity development (Becht et al, 2021), academic engagement (Xiong et al, 2021) and involvement in the juvenile justice system (Pusch et al, 2021).…”