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L'historiographie et l'epistemologie sont deux sujets rarement rapproches dans les etudes sociolegales. Cet article prend les reconstructions de l'histoire juridique comme sujet d'investigation sociologique. L' « acceptabilite » institutionnelle de toute representation historique est un accomplissement social complexe car il n'y a pas de criteres objectifs pour verifier les recits historiques. L'A. juxtapose deux reconstructions concurrentes de l'histoire du Quatorzieme Amendement, par les specialistes legistes Charles Fairman et William Crosskey, puis il examine comment ces deux reconstructions ont pris place en reference aux cadres d'interpretation preexistant. Il se penche egalement sur les cadres sociaux et institutionnels dans lesquels ces histoires ont interagi et concouru en quete de credibilite. La querelle Fairman/Crosskey a servi a socialiser les futurs participants au debat sur le Quatorzieme Amendement : les lignes de bataille et les sujets de discussion etaient alors etablis

Les croyances des citoyens ordinaires au sujet de l'efficacite et de l'impartialite de l'application de la loi contribuent au soutien manifeste envers l'autorite et a la conformite avec les lois. Pour mettre en avant les potentiels effets de vague des contacts de mise en application specifique sur le soutien de la population pour les autorites, les AA. comparent ce que disent les contribuables lors d'entretiens pour un controle fiscal avec ce qu'ils racontent aux membres de leur reseau social. Parce que les gens sont tres concernes par l'image que les autres ont d'eux, cette motivation de communication affaiblit souvent le penchant pour les messages negatifs. Le rapport avec les entretiens des contribuables est etabli pour evaluer les messages d'impartialite des prises de decision, des positions en faveur des resultats et de dignite

I: Legal Socialization Theory.- 1 Studying Legal Socialization.- 2 Comparing Theories of Legal Socialization.- 3 Scope of the Study.- II: Testing Competing Hypotheses.- 4 Changes in Legal Socialization over Time.- 5 Testing Competing Hypotheses.- 6 Effects of the Interaction.- III: Exploring the Interaction.- 7 Legal Reasoning and Behaviors: The Mediating Model.- 8 Offender Status.- 9 A Comparison of Two Rule-Enforcing Experiences.- Conclusion.- Epilogue.- References.- Author List.

Children's perceptions of criminal justice were examined for three types of crimes: assault, arson and treason. They were told about mitigating circumstances which consisted of brain damage, passion and economic need. These were contrasted to a situation in which no mitigating circumstances were offered. The results indicated that the subjects aged 7 to 17 years generally progressed with age from making legal judgements mitigated by a variety of circumstances to recognizing few situations in which such circumstances apply. While, in some cases, younger children were harsher in their judgements than older ones, their leniency and acceptance of mitigating circumstances were highly dependent on the situation. The findings are discussed in terms of legal socialization processes.

1976 is an auspicious birth year for the first chapter on the state of the psychology/ law interface. Although it has not been 200 years since these two fields--concerned with the rules of and for human behavior-initiated collaboration, the history of psychology and law dates back to the first decade of the twentieth century. While Freud in 1906 in Vienna (42) was lecturing judges on the practicality of psychology, others in the United States circa 1 9 10 were also connecting the classroom (psycho­ logical laboratory) with the courtroom (law). In 1908, Munsterberg of Harvard University's psychological laboratory attempted in his book, On the Witness Stand, to apply psychology to legal problems by demonstrating that the psychological processes of perception and memory must be considered in evaluating courtroom testimony (128). In 1909, Healy established in Chicago the first psychological clinic to be attached to a juvenile court-a first also for law; in 1 9 1 5, he wrote Honesty

A theory of legal development, derived from cognitive developmental theory, is explicated using U.S. kindergarten to college and cross-national preadolescent data. Paralleling evidence on universal moral levels, the development of individual orientations vis-a-vis legal or rule systems reveals consistent movement from a preconventional law-obeying, to a conventional law-maintaining, to a postconventional lawmaking perspective. In both the U.S. and cross-national samples, “law and order” conventional reasoning is modal reflecting that socialization experiences can accelerate, retard, or crystallize the growth of legal values and roles. Implications of the theory and findings are discussed for legal socialization.

In different theoretical traditions, negative social conditions, attachments, and interactions shape the way individuals view the law and its agents. Although most researchers acknowledge the conceptual distinction between different legal attitudes such as legal cynicism and police legitimacy, it remains unclear to what extent these attitudes stem from the same social sources. In the current study, therefore, we evaluate the social and individual factors that influence trajectories of legal cynicism and police legitimacy using a diverse community sample of youths in Zurich, Switzerland. Latent growth curve models were employed to examine patterns of change in legal cynicism and police legitimacy between 13 and 20 years of age. The findings show that legal cynicism and police legitimacy both decline into early adulthood and exhibit high rank‐stability over time. Furthermore, we find that legal cynicism is closely related to individual characteristics that reflect one's inability to recognize or abide by their internal rules. By contrast, police legitimacy is shaped by socialization influences, particularly teacher bonds and police contacts. These results indicate a need to assess the measurement and interpretation of legal cynicism critically in relation to broader legitimacy beliefs and to investigate the shared and distinct sources of these different constructs.

The market for lawyers has made a complete about-turn since the early 1980s. 1 With the downturn of the economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s the cry was that too many lawyers were being produced for the places and work available. The situation began to reverse in the mid-1980s and now the legal profession faces a 'crisis' of recruitment and retention of its lawyers. How are the university and polytechnic law schools, which provide the first 'academic' stage of undergraduate legal education, to fit into this changing picture of downswings and upturns in the market? In particular, the enormous demand for new lawyers in the shape of articled clerks comes from the larger 'City' firms which by themselves could swallow annually almost all the law students who wish to go into practice after their university or polytechnic education. Are law students affected mainly by the external market for their hire or by the influences of curriculum, teachers, and colleagues at university? This paper sets out the findings of a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study carried out at the School of Law, University of Warwick, into the socialization effects of undergraduate legal education at Warwick. One aim of the study has been to explore issues of social origin, law school experience, and career expectations with a view to discovering whether students possess, or develop, a set of values and expectations that emphasize the role of 'big city' practice over other forms of legal work. In doing so, it draws on an extensive body of research on legal socialization, most of which has been undertaken in the United States of America.2 The study is informed by the necessary assumption that students do not develop in isolation. They may be influenced by their experiences prior to entry into law school and by cues they receive from the law school and its curriculum, as well as from the external market for legal services.