Looking at Latino Communities: Legal Cynicism, Acculturation, and their Willingness to Cooperate with Police

Numerous studies have examined how acculturation affects Latino neighborhoods and how legal cynicism affects Latino neighborhoods. Acculturation has been linked with low crime levels, meanwhile legal cynicism is attributed to high crime levels. This study aims to address this contradiction in the literature. Based on 1059 surveys, 46 neighborhood clusters were used to examine how legal cynicism and acculturation to Mexico impact a neighborhoods willingness to cooperate with police. A multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression found that acculturation to Mexico results in higher levels of legal cynicism and less willingness to cooperate with police. The OLS regression also found that acculturation to the U.S. resulted in lower levels of legal cynicism and higher levels of willingness to cooperate with police, regardless of their legal cynicism. This studyâ??s limitations and future research are discussed