abstract: Legal cynicism, a concept that reflects how individuals feel about the law, can be linked to different theoretical traditions. However, inconsistencies in the way legal cynicism is operationalized abound. This study aimed to develop a more complete and psychometrically-sound measure of legal cynicism. Factor-analytic procedures were used on a sample of 502 undergraduate university students to create the scale and to test its directional accuracy. Using promax-rotated principal-axis factor analysis, a 4 dimensional factor structure emerged—legal apathy, legal corruption, legal discrimination, and low legal legitimacy. The 21-item scale has a high level of internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .85; mean inter-item r = .58). Results from ordinary least squares regression models confirmed that the multidimensional legal cynicism scale is significantly correlated with criminal offending (β = .34, p < .001), net of low self-control and demographic characteristics. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminal Justice 2015
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:asu.edu/item:34766 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Contributors | Gifford, Faith Elise (Author), Reisig, Michael D. (Advisor), Wang, Xia (Committee member), Wright, Kevin A. (Committee member), Arizona State University (Publisher) |
| Source Sets | Arizona State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Masters Thesis |
| Format | 38 pages |
| Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/, All Rights Reserved |
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