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.

• 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 of Legal Reasoning


• Chapter 6: Neurological Development and Legal Competency


• Part III: Legal Socialization across the Spheres of Childhood and Adolescence


• 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: Conclusions and Final Thoughts


• Notes


• References


• Index

Why Children Follow Rules focuses on the process by which children and adolescents develop their orientation toward the law. Drawing on law, psychology, sociology and criminology, Tom Tyler and Rick Trinkner review the literature on socialization with a particular focus on families, schools, and the juvenile justice to reveal a fundamental conflict about how authority and power should be exercised in essential social institutions. They argue for the merits of consensual authority as a way to foster the popular legitimacy of the law at a time when public trust in the police, courts, and the law has reached unsettling lows.