2016/05/06 by Monica C. Bell · 243 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Criminology #Cynicism #Disadvantaged #Law #Legitimacy #Officer #Policing Practices and Perceptions #Political science #Psychology #Public relations #Situational ethics #Social psychology #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/lasr.12200
published in Law & Society Review 50(2), 314-347 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2016/05/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Research has shown that legal cynicism is pervasive among residents of poor, black neighborhoods. However, controlling for crime rates, these residents call police at higher rates than whites and residents of middle-class neighborhoods, and ethnographic research suggests that mothers in particular sometimes exact social control over partners and children through police notification. Given these findings, how might researchers better understand how legal cynicism and occasional reliance on police fit together? Drawing on interviews with poor African-American mothers in Washington, DC, this article develops an alternative conception of cultural orientations about law: situational trust. This concept emphasizes micro-level dynamism in cultural conceptions of the police, expanding the literature on police trust by emphasizing situational contingency. Mothers deploy at least four alternative strategies that produce moments of trust: officer exceptionalism, domain specificity, therapeutic consequences, and institutional navigation. These strategies shed light on the contextual meanings of safety and legitimacy.