IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcjust/v83y2022ics004723522200054x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consequences of fearing police: Associations with youths' mental health and felt obligation to obey both the law and school rules

Author

Listed:
  • Fine, Adam D.
  • Del Toro, Juan
  • Orosco, Carlena

Abstract

The procedural justice framework suggests that negative perceptions of the police are linked to crime-related behavior. General strain theory could illuminate a key mechanism; negative perceptions of the police might undermine the obligation to obey laws and rules through promoting strain and psychological distress. This study integrated these two theoretical perspectives to examine whether youths' fear of the police might undermine their felt obligation to obey authority institutions, including the law and school, through promoting psychological distress. Children (N = 342) ages 10–12 were sampled in November of 2020. Consistent with theoretical expectations, children's fear of the police was indirectly associated with their felt obligation to obey both the law and school rules through undermining their mental health. These findings have implications for policy, practice, and research; youths' fear of the police may undermine their mental health and may have downstream consequences on their felt obligation to obey not only the law, but also school rules.

Suggested Citation

  • Fine, Adam D. & Del Toro, Juan & Orosco, Carlena, 2022. "Consequences of fearing police: Associations with youths' mental health and felt obligation to obey both the law and school rules," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:83:y:2022:i:c:s004723522200054x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101934
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004723522200054X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101934?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glassner, Steven D., 2020. "Bullying victimization and delinquent involvement: An application of general strain theory," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    2. Das, Aniruddha, 2016. "Psychosocial distress and inflammation: Which way does causality flow?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 1-8.
    3. Geller, A. & Fagan, J. & Tyler, T. & Link, B.G., 2014. "Aggressive policing and the mental health of young urban men," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(12), pages 2321-2327.
    4. Sewell, Abigail A. & Jefferson, Kevin A. & Lee, Hedwig, 2016. "Living under surveillance: Gender, psychological distress, and stop-question-and-frisk policing in New York City," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 1-13.
    5. Gottlieb, Aaron & Wilson, Robert, 2019. "The effect of direct and vicarious police contact on the educational achievement of urban teens," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 190-199.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simckes, Maayan & Willits, Dale & McFarland, Michael & McFarland, Cheryl & Rowhani-Rahbar, Ali & Hajat, Anjum, 2021. "The adverse effects of policing on population health: A conceptual model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    2. Jackson, Dylan B. & Testa, Alexander & Semenza, Daniel C. & Skinner, Rebecca & Vaughn, Michael G., 2022. "Police stops and youths’ educational expectations: Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Carbonaro, Richard, 2022. "System avoidance and social isolation: Mechanisms connecting police contact and deleterious health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    4. Juan Del Toro & Alvin Thomas & Ming-Te Wang & Diane Hughes, 2019. "The Health-Related Consequences to Police Stops as Pathways to Risks in Academic Performance for Urban Adolescents," Working Papers wp19-09-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    5. Kristin Turney, 2019. "Vicarious and Contingent Consequences of Adolescent Police Exposure," Working Papers wp19-01-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    6. Ashley N. Jackson & Sheretta T. Butler-Barnes & Jewel D. Stafford & Helen Robinson & Phylicia C. Allen, 2020. "“Can I Live”: Black American Adolescent Boys’ Reports of Police Abuse and the Role of Religiosity on Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Kristin Turney, 2019. "Vicarious and Contingent Consequences of Adolescent Police Exposure," Working Papers wp19-12-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    8. Katherine H A Footer & Ju Nyeong Park & Saba Rouhani & Noya Galai & Bradley E Silberzahn & Steven Huettner & Sean T Allen & Susan G Sherman, 2020. "The development of the Police Practices Scale: Understanding policing approaches towards street-based female sex workers in a U.S. City," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, January.
    9. Asad, Asad L. & Clair, Matthew, 2018. "Racialized legal status as a social determinant of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 19-28.
    10. Jackson, Dylan B. & Testa, Alexander & Vaughn, Michael G., 2020. "Low self-control and the adolescent police stop: Intrusiveness, emotional response, and psychological well-being," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    11. Amanda Geller, 2017. "Policing America's Children: Police Contact and Consequences Among Teens in Fragile Families," Working Papers wp18-02-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    12. Christopher M. Sullivan & Zachary P. O’Keeffe, 2017. "Evidence that curtailing proactive policing can reduce major crime," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(10), pages 730-737, October.
    13. Ross, Heather M. & Pine, Kathleen H. & Curran, Sarah & Augusta, Dawn, 2022. "Pathway mapping as a tool to address police use of force in behavioral health crisis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    14. McFarland, Michael J. & Geller, Amanda & McFarland, Cheryl, 2019. "Police contact and health among urban adolescents: The role of perceived injustice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Johnson, Odis & St. Vil, Christopher & Gilbert, Keon L. & Goodman, Melody & Johnson, Cassandra Arroyo, 2019. "How neighborhoods matter in fatal interactions between police and men of color," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 226-235.
    16. Johnson, Blair T. & Sisti, Anthony & Bernstein, Mary & Chen, Kun & Hennessy, Emily A. & Acabchuk, Rebecca L. & Matos, Michaela, 2021. "Community-level factors and incidence of gun violence in the United States, 2014–2017," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    17. Bhatt, Monica & Heller, Sara & Kapustin, Max & Bertrand, Marianne & Blattman, Christopher, 2023. "Predicting and Preventing Gun Violence: An Experimental Evaluation of READI Chicago," SocArXiv dks29, Center for Open Science.
    18. Kyriopoulos, Ilias & Vandoros, Sotiris & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2022. "Police killings and suicide among Black Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    19. Crifasi, Cassandra K. & Williams, Rebecca G. & Booty, Marisa D. & Owens-Young, Jessica L. & Webster, Daniel W. & Buggs, Shani A.L., 2022. "Community perspectives on gun violence and safety: The role of policing in Baltimore City," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Nicole Probst-Hensch, 2017. "Happiness and its molecular fingerprints," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 64(2), pages 197-211, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:83:y:2022:i:c:s004723522200054x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcrimjus .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.