Reconceptualizing the relationship between legal cynicism and contacting the police

ABSTRACT The concept of legal cynicism has been widely studied and is increasingly salient in recent times of widespread distrust of police in urban contexts. A critical question derived from existing research is whether legal cynicism relates to the likelihood of citizens contacting the police. Most research in this area relies on aggregate statistics and conflates cynicism of the law as an abstract concept with attitudes about police effectiveness and legitimacy. In this paper, we disentangle cynicism about the law (legal cynicism) from cynicism about the police (police cynicism) to elucidate the processes through which experiences of reportable behavior among citizens turn into police reports. Using a mechanism-based model for understanding the role that these cognitive frames play in individuals’ decision-making about calling the police and a unique data set from Baltimore on individuals nested within street segments, we find that legal cynicism is negatively associated with calling the police independent of attitudes towards the police, experiences with crime, and other key controls. Our findings point to the continued importance of cynicism of the law as a critical subject of study, one that can have an important impact on legal mobilization.