Legal socialization and subcultural norms: Examining linkages between perceptions of procedural justice, legal cynicism, and the code of the street

Youth Perceptions of Law Enforcement and Worry About Crime from 1976 to 2016

“…While some studies have found that procedural fairness, distributive fairness, lawfulness, and effectiveness are constituent parts of legitimacy (e.g., Tankebe, 2013), the debate over measurement continues (J. Jackson, 2018; Moule, Burruss, et al, 2019). Future research would benefit from a multi-item measure that taps different dimensions (Tankebe et al, 2016).…”

“…Indeed, improving perceptions of police and the justice system is a central component of modern criminological research and public policy (J. Jackson & Gau, 2016; Moule, Burruss, et al, 2019; Peyton et al, 2019; Walters, 2018; Walters & Bolger, 2018). In particular, researchers are also increasingly focusing on youth because perceptions developed during childhood and adolescence may set the tone for how youth view and interact with law enforcement into adulthood (Augustyn, 2016; Cavanagh & Cauffman, 2019; Granot & Tyler, 2019; D.…”

The Code of the Street Fights Back! Significant Associations with Arrest, Delinquency, and Violence Withstand Psychological Confounds

“…A large number of studies have utilized macro-level theories to explain the sociological, cultural, and structural reasons for such discrepancies in offending patterns, yet considerably less attention has been directed toward exploring the effect of individual personality deficits about offending in such environments. Scholars have speculated [18][19][20][21] that Anderson's code of the street was merely a sociological presentation of antisocial traits. The current study represents one such investigation as we empirically examined whether the code of the street and its association with delinquency, arrests, and violence can withstand confounds for psychological personality traits, specifically psychopath and temperament deficits, using a sample of institutionalized juvenile offenders in a long-term residential facility.…”

“…Despite the popularity of Anderson's thesis differentiating antisocial ("street") and prosocial ("decent") adaptations about cultural and structural isolation, it is also plausible that the code of the street is conflated with psychological factors that also relate to antisocial responses. As suggested by prior researchers [17][18][19][20][21], the code of the street is conceptually congruent with a variety of constructs including hostile attribution bias, antisocial personality disorder, temperamental deficits, and psychopathy. Unfortunately, this important conceptual point is largely overlooked in the criminological literature.…”

Heterogeneity in the Continuity and Change of Early and Adult Risk Factor Profiles of Incarcerated Individuals: A Latent Transition Analysis

“…Adhering to street code beliefs is a strong risk factor for offending, as violence is commonly used to gain respect and handle conflicts between individuals (Anderson, 1999). Limited research has explicitly examined street code beliefs among adults (see Moule & Fox, 2020;Moule et al, 2019;Piquero et al, 2012); nonetheless, given the strong links between beliefs and behaviors generally (e.g., Akers, 1998), street code adherence is assessed as an adult risk factor for crime and violence.…”