Why Children Follow Rules

Tom R. Tyler, the Macklin Fleming Professor of Law and professor of psychology, and Rick Trinkner, assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University

(Oxford University Press)

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 18 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 on 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, the authors 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 the legal system, Tyler and Trinkner point to alternative ways to foster the popular legitimacy of the law in an era of mistrust.