Perceptions of Legal Legitimacy among University Students with and without Military Service

Abstract

We know that individuals who have and have not served in the military often hold different assessments of social institutions. We also know from a separate body of research that perceptions of the legitimacy of a society's legal system is an important social indicator that varies on a number of demographics, experiential, and identity factors. Yet research has not explored if and how veteran status is associated with perceptions of legitimacy. We began addressing this gap in the literature by surveying veteran and nonveteran students. The results of this exploratory study showed that veterans did not differ from nonveterans in their perceptions of legitimacy, but a different set of factors shaped the assessments of veteran students. Further, our examination of veteran-specific factors showed that exposure to combat was negatively associated with legitimacy and that veteran identity contributed to increased trust in the legitimacy of legal institutions.

Perceptions of legal legitimacy in veterans treatment courts: A test of a modified version of procedural justice theory.

“…Yet, in the present study, recidivism risk did not have a significant effect in any model. Similarly, exposure to combat was not associated with perceptions of legitimacy as it was in a survey of veterans enrolled in a U.S. university (Gallagher & Ashford, 2019).…”

“…It has been used effectively to measure criminal identity; see Sherretts and Willmott (2016) for review and validation study. Finally, it demonstrated strong reliability in its one prior usage with veterans (Gallagher & Ashford, 2019) with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of .82 through .94 for the subscales and .92 for the full scale. The items were measured in the present study with a scale of 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating stronger identification as a veteran, and we used the mean-derived total score to focus on participants’ overall veteran identity and for model parsimony.…”

“…One study is known to have examined relevant norms among veterans. Using a sample of university students, Gallagher and Ashford (2019) found veterans to have positive perspectives of the legitimacy of the U.S. legal system that did not differ from nonveteran students. Moreover, veteran identity was positively associated with legitimacy.…”

“…Research into legitimacy with veterans is limited. One survey of veterans enrolled in a large public university found combat exposure was negatively associated with perceived legitimacy (Gallagher & Ashford, 2019).…”

Clients of VA-Housed Legal Clinics: Legal and Psychosocial Needs When Seeking Services and Two Months Later

“…Possibly, a longer duration and intensity of legal services would favorably impact clients’ satisfaction, which in this study was positive but moderate. Generally, veterans’ stronger identification as a veteran (the individual has social bonds with other veterans and positive feelings about being grouped with veterans) is associated with having stronger beliefs that legal agencies are fair, based on shared values, and should be obeyed ( Gallagher & Ashford, 2019 ).…”