NCJ Number
249423
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 39 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2015 Pages: 152-161
Date Published
April 2015
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Since there have been few studies on how Latinos (documented or undocumented) interact with and form attitudes about police and no studies on adjudicated youth from families with an undocumented member, the current study interviewed 155 pairs (N = 310) of Latina immigrant mothers and their first-time offending sons.
Abstract
Approximately 8 million Latinos in the United States are undocumented immigrants, nearly half of whom are parents to a minor. Concerns over deportation may affect the way families with undocumented members perceive legal authorities relative to documented immigrant families. The current study found that more than half of the mothers, and 12.3 percent of youth interviewed were undocumented residents. Controlling for key contextual factors, youth whose mothers were undocumented held more negative attitudes toward the police than youth whose mothers were documented. Youth, however, did not perceive judges differently based on mother's documentation status, suggesting that documentation status relates to police specifically rather than justice system attitudes broadly. The same pattern was noted when considering youth's own documentation status. Because negative attitudes toward police have been associated with decreased reports of victimization and other crimes, policy related to undocumented immigration should consider the unintended effects of such laws. (Publisher abstract modified)