U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Attitudes toward legal actors among dual system youth

NCJ Number
303352
Journal
Journal of Social Issues Volume: 77 Issue: 2 Dated: 2021 Pages: 504-527
Author(s)
C. Cavanagh; et al
Date Published
2021
Length
24 pages
Annotation

In examining whether a juvenile's contact with the child welfare system (CWS) compared to—and in addition to—juvenile justice system contact is associated with Latinx youths' attitudes toward police and judges, the current study addressed this issue among a sample of 417 Latinx youth who had been arrested for the first time, 74 of whom were dual-system (DS) youth, i.e., involved with both juvenile justice and CW systems.

Abstract

Results indicated that DS youth perceived police as less biased, and both police and judges as more legitimate, than their juvenile justice system-only counterparts. CWS contact was not associated with perceptions of situational procedural justice for police or judges, suggesting that CWS contact colors general attitudes toward legal actors’ bias and legitimacy, but not specific interactions with legal actors. The results suggest that CWS contact, above and beyond juvenile justice system contact, has a nuanced impact on children's legal socialization. (publisher abstract modified)