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

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 various 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 perceptions/features of these stops, including the degree of officer intrusiveness, 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 Strategies) and facilitate trauma-informed policing may be beneficial in curtailing the development of legal cynicism.