Predictors of Legal Socialization and Legal Attitudes
- ISBN-10
- 0438627954
- ISBN-13
- 9780438627956
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018
- Author
- Deborah Anne Goldfarb
Description
Every time individuals interact with the legal system a wealth of information is communicated to them. For example, individuals may learn societal values about how the legal system views them and how it views others. Legal understanding and legal attitudes naturally develop in part from such interactions. The process through which individuals develop legal understanding and attitudes is referred to as legal socialization. The three studies here respond to the call to broaden scientific understanding of predictors of legal socialization outside of the number of legal interactions. The first study considers an important question that falls within traditional legal socialization research but does so for an understudied group, specifically foster youth. The question considered is “Does the quantity of attorney-client interactions predict foster youth’s legal system views?” The findings indicate that quality of legal interactions is more important than quantity per se. The study also compares foster youth and non-foster youth’s views of the dependency system. The second study considers factors that together have not been previously examined in the legal-psychological literature as predictors of legal system views: childhood maltreatment, adult insecure attachment, and psychopathology. Specifically, it examines whether cumulative childhood maltreatment directly predicts legal views and whether adult insecure attachment and psychopathology mediate this relation. The third study evaluates how laws convey information about society’s views of individuals and groups. There, I analyze developmentally whether legal mandates regulating a social group affect views of the individuals belonging to the regulated group. The importance of legal socialization and the value of expanding our understanding of predictors of legal attitudes are discussed.
