Mothers' and Sons' Justice System Legitimacy Attitudes and Juvenile Recidivism

Attitudes about justice system legitimacy have been associated with subsequent behavior. Specifically, more negative attitudes toward the justice system have associated with higher rates of reoffending. Despite the well-documented link between parents' and children's attitudes in other domains, no research has explored how parents' attitudes toward the justice system may be associated with youth attitudes. Relationship warmth may facilitate the strength of attitude transmission across generations, and warm parent-adolescent relationships may serve as a buffer against reoffending. The relation between youth and mother justice system legitimacy attitudes, and the effect these attitudes have on juvenile offenders' re-offending behavior, was examined. The role of relationship warmth in parent-adolescent attitude transmission and reoffending was also tested. Mothers and their sons (N=180 pairs), juvenile offenders, were interviewed after youth's first arrest and again after six months. Results indicate that mothers' and sons' legitimacy attitudes were related, controlling for demographic factors [F(6, 170)=1.279, p=.011, r2=0.045]. Both sons' and mothers' lower legitimacy attitudes predicted increased youth reoffending 6 months after the first offense. A significant mediation was present, such that mother's legitimacy attitudes affected son's legitimacy attitudes, which in turn affected reoffending. In addition, sons with a warm relationship with their mothers were less likely to reoffend after six months, and more likely to have similar justice system legitimacy attitudes to their mothers. Justice system legitimacy attitudes as well as the quality of family relationships are important points of intervention to parties interested in preventing the further penetration of youth probationers into the justice system.