Impact: How Law Affects Behavior

328 Pages·2016·9.4 MB·English

by  Lawrence M. Friedman

Impact

IMPACT
How Law Affects Behavior
LAWRENCE M. FRIEDMAN
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
2016
Copyright © 2016 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Friedman, Lawrence M. (Lawrence Meir), 1930– author.
Title: Impact : how law aff ects be hav ior / Lawrence M. Friedman.
Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : Harvard University Press, 2016. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2016011341 | ISBN 9780674971059 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Eff ectiveness and validity of law. | Law— Social aspects. |
Law— Psychological aspects. | Obedience (Law) | Compliance. |
So cio log i cal jurisprudence.
Classifi cation: LCC K260 .F75 2016 | DDC 340/.115— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov /2 016011341
For Leah, Jane, Amy, Sarah, David, Lucy, and Irene

CONTENTS
A Very Short Prologue / ix
1. Introduction / 1
2. Getting Out the Message / 7
3. An Anatomy of Compliance / 44
4. A Typology of Responses / 73
5. Rewards and Punishments: Th e Punishment Side / 96
6. Rewards and Punishments: Incentives and the Civil Side / 139
7. Th e Pressure of Peers / 153
8. Th e Inner Voice / 188
9. Factors in Harmony; Factors in Battle / 218
10. A Concluding Word / 249
Notes / 255
Acknowl edgments / 297
Index / 299

A VERY SHORT PROLOGUE
Th is small book, as the title suggests, is about impact: about how law
aff ects be hav ior. In 1975, I published a book called Th e Legal System: A
Social Science Perspective. Two chapters in that book dealt with the sub-
ject of impact.
Th at was forty years ago. In the past few years, I decid ed to revisit the
topic. A lot of water had gone under the bridge; and more to the point,
a lot had happened in the world of law-a nd-s ociety scholarship. My aim
was to bring the subject up- to- date and to bring myself up to date. Th e
outcome, I hoped, would be a more con temporary, more comprehen-
sive treatment of the subject.
Th e study of impact— rarely so labeled— had mushroomed during this
period. On one small topic—d oes the death penalty deter?—o ceans of
ink had been spilled; the studies apparently run into the hundreds or
even more. On the question of when, how, and why regulation of business
works or d oesn’t work, another ocean of ink. Th ere is also increasing
interest in cross-c ultural studies. Even in the Eng lish language, more
and more studies concern countries other than the United States or com-
pare two or more countries, oft en (but by no means always) including
the United States.
Th e sheer volume of work is a prob lem, a barrier. And the work comes
from all branches of social science—f rom economists, criminologists,