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Legitimacy and the Life Course: An Age-graded Examination of Changes in Legitimacy Attitudes over Time

Objectives: A body of literature has demonstrated that the perceived legitimacy of legal authorities is an important predictor of criminal offending. Criminal offending is itself age-graded and good explanations of offending should offer some insight for how it changes as individuals age. This article attempts to address this gap by developing and testing seven hypotheses regarding how legitimacy changes over time. Method: Using panel data from the Pathways to Desistance study, a latent growth model (LGM) for legitimacy examines how evaluations of legitimacy change from adolescence to emerging adulthood as well as what factors influence this change. Results: During the period individuals were involved in the study, the LGM revealed that perceptions of legitimacy increase as individuals progress through adolescence before stabilizing in emerging adulthood. Several theoretical factors were related to individuals’ legitimacy evaluations including parental evaluations of legitimacy, family support, emotionality, and self-control. Most importantly, perceptions of procedural justice were found to be related to legitimacy, but this relationship weakened as individuals aged. Conclusions: Evaluations of the legitimacy of legal authorities are, in fact, age-graded. Criminologists should continue to explore the sources of legitimacy evaluations in further developing legitimacy as an important theory of criminal behavior.