A street corner education: stop and search, trust, and gendered norms among adolescent males

Bradford, Ben ORCID: 0000-0001-5480-5638, Posch, Krisztian, Jackson, Jonathan ORCID: 0000-0003-2426-2219 and Dawson, Paul (2022) A street corner education: stop and search, trust, and gendered norms among adolescent males. PLOS ONE, 17 (12). ISSN 1932-6203

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Abstract

Police stop and search activity has consistently been shown to affect the opinions, attitudes and behaviours of those subject to it. For young people in particular, this can be an important moment in which they learn about and orientate themselves towards law, authority, and the exercise of power. Drawing on work into procedural justice and legal socialisation, we build on the premise that stop and search has, in practice, more to do with the imposition of authority on the streets than the accurate 20 targeting tool of crime-control activity. We consider the link between experiences of stop and search, trust in the police, exposure to or involvement in gangs and violence, and the extent to which male adolescents hold abusive and controlling gendered beliefs regarding sexuality and intimate partner relations. Using data from a survey of Londoners aged 14-16, we find support for the notion that adolescent males’ procedurally unjust stop and search experiences are associated with lower levels of trust in the police, higher levels of involvement in and exposure to gang-related activities, and believing it is acceptable to harass females in public space and control intimate partners. We conclude with the idea that unfair stop/searches can signal that it is ‘OK’ to abuse power.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://journals.plos.org/plosone/
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Author(s).
Divisions:	Methodology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2022 12:00
Last Modified:	18 Apr 2024 04:36
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/117577

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