This study explores the social and developmental antecedents of legal cynicism. This study comprises a range of indicators organized into four domains—bonds to institutions, predispositions, experiences, and delinquent involvement—that bear on theoretically plausible mechanisms involved in the development of legal cynicism.

This study examines four pathways to legal cynicism using data from two waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths (N = 1,226). Ordinary least squares (OLS) procedures are used to regress legal cynicism at t ₂ (age 15) on social and psychological characteristics measured at t ₁ (age 13), and retrospective variables measured at t ₂. Baseline legal cynicism was included as a covariate in all models.

The results show that self-reported delinquency is the strongest predictor of legal cynicism. There is also evidence that alienation from society, negative experiences with police, and association with deviant peers can foster legal cynicism.

This study shows that legal cynicism is to a small extent the result of alienation from social institutions and negative experiences with the police. To a much larger degree, legal cynicism seems to represent a cognitive neutralization technique used to justify one’s previous self-reported delinquency.