Cavanagh Caitlin, Cauffman Elizabeth
Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine.
Law Hum Behav. 2015 Apr;39(2):152-61. doi: 10.1037/lhb0000097. Epub 2014 Jun 23.
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. Yet, 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. To address this gap, 155 pairs (N = 310) of Latina immigrant mothers and their first-time offending sons were interviewed. More than half of the mothers, and 12.3% of youth, 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. (PsycINFO Database Record
美国约有800万拉丁裔是无证移民，其中近一半是未成年人的父母。对被驱逐出境的担忧可能会影响有无证家庭成员的家庭与有证件的移民家庭相比，对法律当局的认知方式。然而，关于拉丁裔（有证件或无证件）如何与警察互动以及对警察形成何种态度的研究很少，且没有关于有无证家庭成员家庭中被判决的青少年的研究。为了填补这一空白，研究人员对155对（N = 310）拉丁裔移民母亲及其初犯儿子进行了访谈。超过一半的母亲和12.3%的青少年是无证居民。在控制关键背景因素后，母亲为无证居民的青少年比母亲有证件的青少年对警察持有更负面的态度。然而，青少年并没有根据母亲的证件状况对法官有不同的认知，这表明证件状况与对警察的态度具体相关，而不是与整个司法系统的态度相关。在考虑青少年自身的证件状况时也发现了同样的模式。由于对警察的负面态度与减少的受害报告和其他犯罪行为有关，与无证移民相关的政策应考虑此类法律的意外影响。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
