The Cynicism Produced by Recidivism

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure you use, it shall be measured to you again

(Matthew 7:1).

Legal cynicism refers to a cultural orientation in which people perceive the law as irrelevant to their everyday lives. Cynicism becomes cultural through social interaction. In this sense, “individuals’ experiential-based perception of the law becomes solidified through a collective process whereby residents develop a shared meaning of the behavior of the law.”[1] Kirk's research used a unique combination of data on returning prisoners' geographic distribution merged with longitudinal data on neighborhood cultural and social processes. Kirk tested the following hypothesis: Concentrated prisoner reentry has a positive exponential relationship with the extent of legal cynicism in a neighborhood.[2] The author argued that since he tested whether there is a positive relationship between concentrated prisoner reentry and legal cynicism, he relied upon one-tailed tests of significance in analyses. This test revealed a relationship of statistical significance (.92) over time.[3] Beyond the impact of imprisonment, the coercive mobility thesis underlines the consequences of the cycling, or stirring, of offenders through a community. A former offender's return to a neighborhood is usually proceeded by removing the offender from the same area.[4]

Research reveals that direct experiences with incarceration or police harassment reduce an individual’s trust in the law and government.[5] Involvement with the criminal justice system significantly depresses a person’s trust in government. While trust in law and government is becoming increasingly eroded, the more interaction an individual (arrested) has with the criminal justice system; individuals will have less trust in the government than individuals who have only been stopped and questioned by the police.[6] Arguably, then, ex-prisoners bring back to the neighborhood not only their experiences with the prison system but also, more broadly, the cumulative negative experiences they have had with the police, the courts, and with prison.[7]

[1] David S. Kirk, “Prisoner Reentry and the Reproduction of Legal Cynicism,” Social Problems 63, no. 2 (October 2016): 223. [2] ibid., 227. [3] ibid., 227. [4] ibid., 224. [5] ibid., 225. [6] ibid., 225. [7] ibid., 225.