Legal Socialization: A Study of Norms and Rules

Legal Socialization - A Study of Norms and Rules examines the varying responses, negative and positive, to rule enforcement, as well as the genesis of these responses and the conditions under which they occur. The book presents the results of a longitudinal, multi-methodological study of the dynamic interaction between norms of behavior and rule enforcement in a natural setting, specifically, a university residential community. This approach allowed for the testing of competing hypotheses drawn from social learning and cognitive developmental theory to determine which was more substantively predictive of legal socialization. The first major section discusses the vital issues involved in understanding legal socialization; the two major legal socialization theories; and the research design of the study carried out by the authors. The second part concentrates on empirically testing the predictions of legal development theory versus social learning theory. The final section explores the interaction between reasoning and rule-enforcing conditions and its importance for understanding legal socialization.