The Relation between Law and Morality: Children's Reasoning about Socially Beneficial and Unjust Laws

Abstract

This study investigated children's reasoning about laws and legal compliance. A total of 72 children, 24 each at 6, 8, and 10 years of age, made judgments of law evaluation ("Is it a good or bad law?"), legitimacy of legal regulation ("Is it OK or not for government to make a law?"), and law violation ("Is it OK or not for people to break the law?") for three socially beneficial laws (a traffic law, a vaccination law, and a law requiring compulsory education for children under 16) and three unjust laws (denial of education to a class of persons, denial of medical care to the poor, and age discrimination). Participants also evaluated the application of laws in conflict scenarios in which a socially beneficial law infringed on individual freedom. Results showed that children considered a number of factors in their judgments, including the perceived justice of the law, its socially beneficial purpose, and its potential for infringement on individual freedoms and rights. The findings showed that children apply moral concepts of harm, rights, and justice to evaluate laws and to inform their judgments of legal compliance.

Jimmy’s Baby Doll and Jenny’s Truck: Young Children’s Reasoning About Gender Norms

“…Past research (Helwig & Jasiobedzka, 2001) has found that in judging the legitimacy of legal regulation children consider multiple features of the situation, including whether the law has a socially beneficial purpose, and individual rights and autonomy. In the present study, we expected that children would negatively evaluate regulations that enforce gender norms on the basis of their concerns with the fairness of the regulation.…”

Children's Social and Moral Reasoning

“…Children ' s reasoning about authority is not based on unilateral respect or an unexamined acceptance of authority injunctions; rather, even young children make subtle discriminations taking into account the type of command given and the attributes lending legitimacy to individuals in authority. Children also take a critical perspective on rules and laws when they confl ict with the demands of morality (Helwig & Jasiobedzka, 2001 ). In that study, children 6 years of age and older judged laws that discriminate against individuals on the basis of age, income, or appearance to be wrong and their violation to be permissible.…”

Um discurso a duas vozes: potencialidades de um estudo interpretativo sobre lei e institucionalização

“…Do mesmo modo, as pesquisas de Selman (1989) com populações de jovens delinquentes, acerca da capacidade de adopção de perspectivas, indicam que estes sujeitos reconhecem o modo de funcionamento da realidade social, embora revelem dificuldades a nível da concepção do dever. Por outro lado, esta concepção heterónoma do dever não é exclusiva deste tipo de populações (Helwig & Jasiobedzka, 2001), sendo comum aos indivíduos cujo desenvolvimento sócio-moral não integra ainda a perspectiva do Outro, situando-se num nível pré-convencional (Kohlberg, 1989). Os jovens reconhecem que as regras e as convenções são parte essencial do sistema social, devendo os indivíduos revelar conformidade a essas normas, a fim de que seja mantida a ordem social.…”