Centering race in procedural justice theory: Structural racism and the under- and overpolicing of Black communities.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the factors that legitimized the police in the United States at an important moment of history, just after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. We also evaluated one way of incorporating perceptions of systemic racism into procedural justice theory. HYPOTHESES: We tested two primary hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that perceptions of police procedural justice, distributive justice, and bounded authority were important to the legitimization of the police. The second hypothesis was that perceptions of the under- and overpolicing of Black communities also mattered to the delegitimization of the institution, especially for people who identified with the Black Lives Matter movement. METHOD: A cross-sectional quota sample survey of 1,500 U.S. residents was conducted in June 2020. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and latent moderated structural equation modeling. RESULTS: People who viewed the police as legitimate also tended to believe that police treated people with respect and dignity, made decisions in unbiased ways, fairly allocated their finite resources across groups in society, and respected the limits of their rightful authority. Moreover, people who believed that Black communities were underpoliced and overpoliced also tended to question the legitimacy of the police, especially if they identified with the Black Lives Matter movement. These results held among Black and White study participants alike. CONCLUSIONS: At the time of the study, systemic racism in policing may have delegitimized the institution in a way that transcended the factors that procedural justice theory focuses on, such as procedural justice. This was especially so for individuals who identified with a social movement, Black Lives Matter, that had an extremely high profile in 2020. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Longitudinal Associations Between Paternal Incarceration and Family Well-Being: Implications for Ethnic/Racial Disparities in Health.

OBJECTIVE: Ethnic/racial minority children in the United States are more likely to experience father loss to incarceration than White children, and limited research has examined the health implications of these ethnic/racial disparities. Telomere length is a biomarker of chronic stress that is predictive of adverse health outcomes. This study examined whether paternal incarceration predicted telomere length shortening among offspring from childhood to adolescence, whether maternal depression mediated the link, and whether ethnicity/race moderated results. METHOD: Research participants included 2,395 families in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, a national and longitudinal cohort study of primarily low-income families from 20 large cities in the United States. Key constructs were measured when children were on average ages 9 (2007-2010) and 15 (2014-2017). RESULTS: Children who experienced paternal incarceration exhibited shorter telomere lengths between ages 9 and 15, and changes in maternal depression mediated this finding. Specifically, mothers who experienced a partner's incarceration were more likely to have depression between children's ages 9 and 15. In turn, increases in maternal depression between children's ages 9 and 15 predicted more accelerated telomere length shortening among children during this period. Paternal incarceration was more prevalent and frequent for ethnic/racial minority youth than for White youth. CONCLUSION: Paternal incarceration is associated with a biomarker of chronic stress among children in low-income families. Rates of paternal incarceration were more prevalent and frequent among Black American and multiethnic/multiracial families than among White Americans. As a result, the mass incarceration crisis of the criminal justice system is likely shaping intergenerational ethnic/racial health disparities.

Perceptions of police legitimacy and bias from ages 13 to 22 among Black, Latino, and White justice-involved males.

OBJECTIVE: Although researchers, policymakers, and practitioners recognize the importance of the public's perceptions of police, few studies have examined developmental trends in adolescents and young adults' views of police. HYPOTHESES: Hypothesis 1: Perceptions of police legitimacy would exhibit a U-shaped curve, declining in adolescence before improving in young adulthood. Hypothesis 2: At all ages, Black youth would report more negative perceptions of police legitimacy than Latino youth, who would report more negative perceptions than White youth. Hypothesis 3: Perceptions of police bias would be consistently associated with worse perceptions of police legitimacy. METHOD: Utilizing longitudinal data from the Crossroads Study, this study examined within-person trends in males' perceptions of police legitimacy from ages 13 to 22, as well as whether perceptions of police bias were associated with perceptions of police legitimacy. RESULTS: Perceptions of police legitimacy followed a U-shaped curve that declined during adolescence, reached its lowest point around age 18, and improved during the transition to young adulthood. Compared with White youth, Latino and Black youth had shallower curves in perceptions of police legitimacy that exhibited less improvement during the transition to adulthood. Further, perceptions of police bias were consistently associated with more negative perceptions of police legitimacy across races and ages. CONCLUSIONS: While perceptions of police legitimacy may decline during adolescence before improving during the transition to adulthood, perceptions of police bias are consistently negatively related to youth and young adults' perceptions of police legitimacy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Is the effect of justice system attitudes on recidivism stable after youths' first arrest? Race and legal socialization among first-time youth offenders.

Youth who hold negative attitudes toward the justice system are more likely to engage in crime. It is particularly important to study attitudes early in someone's criminal career when they may still be open to change. To date, however, there has been no empirical test assessing whether the relation between attitudes and behavior changes after a first arrest. Using a sample of 1,216 first-time, male, juvenile offenders from the Crossroads Study, the present study explored: (a) racial/ethnic differences in the longitudinal patterns of youths' attitudes; and (b) reciprocal associations between youths' attitudes and both their offending behavior and rearrests in the 2.5 years after their first arrest. The results indicated that White youths' attitudes remained largely stable, Black youths' attitudes became more negative, and Latino youths' attitudes became more negative but only among Latino youth who reoffended. Although the results indicated that youths' attitudes were related to both offending and rearrest, the bidirectional relation between attitudes and offending weakened across time. After 2.5 years after their first arrest, attitudes no longer predicted offending or rearrests. These novel findings suggest that a youth's first contact is likely the most impactful. When it comes to young offenders' interactions with the justice system, first impressions matter. (PsycINFO Database Record

Self-Control Assessments and Implications for Predicting Adolescent Offending.

Although low self-control is consistently related to adolescent offending, it is unknown whether self-report measures or laboratory behavior tasks yield better predictive utility, or if a combination yields incremental predictive power. This is particularly important because developmental theory indicates that self-control is related to adolescent offending and, consequently, risk assessments rely on self-control measures. The present study (a) examines relationships between self-reported self-control on the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory with Go/No-Go response inhibition, and (b) compares the predictive utility of both assessment strategies for short- and long-term adolescent reoffending. It uses longitudinal data from the Crossroads Study of male, first-time adolescent offenders ages 13-17 (N = 930; 46 % Hispanic/Latino, 37 % Black/African-American, 15 % non-Hispanic White, 2 % other race). The results of the study indicate that the measures are largely unrelated, and that the self-report measure is a better indicator of both short- and long-term reoffending. The laboratory task measure does not add value to what is already predicted by the self-report measure. Implications for assessing self-control during adolescence and consequences of assessment strategy are discussed.