A Developmental Approach to Understanding Gender Differences Among Youth Offenders Regarding Perceptions of Police Legitimacy

Abstract

While there is a rich body of literature regarding attitudes toward the police, longitudinal empirical research on perceptions of police legitimacy among youth offenders is scant. Using data from Pathways to Desistance, a longitudinal study of 1,354 serious juvenile offenders, the current study builds upon the literature by identifying developmental trajectories of perceptions of police legitimacy among serious young offenders by gender. The study used group-based trajectory modeling, which yielded five trajectory groups for males and four trajectory groups for females. Female youth offenders exhibited slight increases in perceptions of police legitimacy, whereas males showed variations in perceptions of police legitimacy across the seven waves. To examine the probability that predictors belong to certain trajectory groups, the average marginal effects from a multinomial logit regression model were calculated. The findings showed that direct and indirect procedural justice and Black were statistically significant predictors of the probability of police legitimacy trajectories for both males and females. Compared with the male youth offenders, among their female counterparts, legal cynicism, self-reported offense, Hispanic, and age were not associated with the probability of each trajectory group. Given our findings and the strong association between the likelihood of offending and perceptions of the police, we suggest that existing early intervention programs may add a curriculum on prosocial attitudes toward the police. The findings also shed light on the significance of gender in the developmental perspective of police legitimacy perceptions among youth offenders.

Autoridad policial, socialización legal y justicia procedimental: percepciones en adolescentes de Guadalajara

“…De manera especí#ca en relación con el género, a pesar de que existe un expreso reconocimiento de las diferencias entre hombres y mujeres relativas a los procesos de socialización (Leaper & Friedman, 2015) e, incluso, en torno a las evaluaciones de las instituciones de justicia (Bolger et al, 2021;Fossati & Meeker, 1997;Lee et al, 2023;Rigby, 1989), existen muy pocos trabajos que hayan analizado de manera explícita las diferencias entre hombres y mujeres (Zavaleta et al, 2016). De hecho, una gran cantidad de estudios sobre la legitimidad policial con los adolescentes se han efectuado únicamente en hombres (Brunson & Weitzer, 2009;Fine et al, 2022;Gau & Brunson, 2010;Tyler et al, 2014).…”