Why Children Follow Rules

Legal Socialization and the Development of Legitimacy
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-0-19-064414-7
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 584 g

Legal socialization is the process by which children and adolescents acquire their law related values, attitudes, and reasoning capacities. Such values and attitudes, in particular legitimacy, underlie the ability and willingness to consent to laws and defer to legal authorities that make legitimacy based legal systems possible. By age eighteen a person's orientation toward law is largely established, yet legal scholarship has largely ignored this process in favor of studying adults and their relationship to the law.

Why Children Follow Rules focuses upon legal socialization outlining what is known about the process across three related, but distinct, contexts: the family, the school, and the juvenile justice system. Throughout, Tom Tyler and Rick Trinkner emphasize the degree to which individuals develop their orientations toward law and legal authority upon values connected to responsibility and obligation as opposed to fear of punishment. They argue that authorities can act in ways that internalize legal values and promote supportive attitudes. In particular, consensual legal authority is linked to three issues: how authorities make decisions, how they treat people, and whether they recognize the boundaries of their authority. When individuals experience authority that is fair, respectful, and aware of the limits of power, they are more likely to consent and follow directives.

Despite clear evidence showing the benefits of consensual authority, strong pressures and popular support for the exercise of authority based on dominance and force persist in America's families, schools, and within the juvenile justice system. As the currently low levels of public trust and confidence in the police, the courts, and the law undermine the effectiveness of our legal system, Tom Tyler and Rick Trinkner point to alternative way to foster the popular legitimacy of the law in an era of mistrust.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tyler, Tom R.

Trinkner, Rick

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Entwicklungspsychologie Kinder- und Jugendpsychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Arbeit/Sozialpädagogik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Jugendkriminalität
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtssoziologie, Rechtspsychologie, Rechtslinguistik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Acknowledgements

- Part I: Introduction

- Chapter 1: Legal Socialization and the Elements of Legitimacy

- Chapter 2: General Approaches to Legal Socialization

- Chapter 3: Legal Socialization across the Life Course

- Part II: Models of Legal Socialization

- Chapter 4: Developing Values and Attitudes about the Law

- Chapter 5: The Development and Legal Competency

- Chapter 6: Neurological Development and Legal Competency

- Part III: Socialization across the spheres of childhood

- Chapter 7: Legal socialization in the family

- Chapter 8: Legal socialization in the school

- Chapter 9: Legal Socialization in the juvenile justice system

- Part IV: Conclusion and Final Thoughts

- Notes

- References

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Tom R. Tyler is the Macklin Fleming Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale University.

Rick Trinkner is Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University.