Abstract:
Obeying the law in everyday life cannot be taken for granted. Whether the concern is compliance with traffic laws, drug laws, immigration laws, or the payment of taxes, legal authorities are confronted with sufficient noncompliance to question whether the resources normally devoted to social control are adequate. In some cases, such as the illegal downloading of music and copying of movies, levels of noncompliance are so high as to make effective regulation difficult -- nearly impossible. Also, studies of personal encounters with the police demonstrate that compliance can never be assumed; people often resist, and even defy legal and judicial orders. In this lecture, I advocate the value of a self-regulatory approach to law and criminal justice. I do so by first describing and critiquing the dominant approach to regulation in use today: deterrence. I argue that, in practice, this model is costly and minimally effective in securing compliance with the law and motivating the acceptance of decisions made by legal authorities. I then outline a different, self-regulatory, model based upon engaging people’s values as a basis for motivating voluntary deference to the law. I review empirical research suggesting that this strategy is both viable and in many ways more desirable than current approaches.
Lecturer:
Dr. Tom R. Tyler is chair and university professor of psychology and law at New York University. His research focuses on the dynamics of authority in legal, managerial, and political settings. He studies how judgments about the justice of procedures shape people's reactions to rules and decisions made by authorities, and how views about the legitimacy of rules and policies influence cooperation with authorities and institutions. His book on Why People Obey the Law (1990, 2006) is widely cited in law and the social sciences. Other recent books include: Social Justice in a Diverse Society (1997); Cooperation in Groups: Procedural Justice, Social Identity, and Behavioral Engagement (2000); and Trust in the Law: Encouraging Public Cooperation with the Police and Courts (2002).
Barrister Club, part of the Moritz College of Law
