Three Paths from Law Enforcement to Compliance: Cases from the Fisheries

Toward a Theory of Compliance in State-Regulated Livelihoods: A Comparative Study of Compliance Motivations in Developed and Developing World Fisheries

“…Gaining a competitive advantage through illegal means was clearly not accepted. The moral force of law among these fishers arguably reflects the importance of law‐abidingness to the Norwegian image of the “good citizen.” Data showing that these fishers believed that Norwegian fishers were much more law‐abiding than foreign fishers supports the interpretation that law abidingness is part of the fishers' social identity (Gezelius 2006, 2007). The study of the Norwegian offshore fishers thus found that all three compliance motivations—deterrence, moral support for the law's content, and the legislator's authority—played a role in ensuring compliance.…”

“…Some of this “second generation” literature drew on qualitative data to explore fishers' compliance motivations, highlighting, for example, positive effects gained by nondeterrence‐based enforcement (Hønneland 1998; see also May 2004; Parker 2006). Social, economic, and normative compliance motivators in developed (Gezelius 2003, 2006, 2007) and developing (Hauck 1999, 2008) countries were studied in further depth through ethnographic studies. Based on a comparative research design, this article analyzes the findings of these ethnographic studies.…”

“…Empowerment is considered a governable precondition for the compliance motivation of moral support for the law's content. Moral support for the law's content means that fishers perceive that rules and regulations correspond to their moral beliefs, and that they therefore consider the content of the law as a significant reason for compliance (Gezelius 2007). The importance of moral support for the law's content has received increasing attention in literature concerned with normative compliance motivations.…”

The impacts of deterrence, social norms and legitimacy on forest rule compliance in Ghana

“…For instance, it has been suggested that small, homogenous user groups, with a common history and shared culture, are more likely to be motivated by normative factors, in comparison to large user groups, such as international timber companies (Ostrom, 1990;Ramcilovic-Suominen et al, 2012: 51). The so-called "smart law enforcement interventions" or "alternative approaches to law compliance" (Gezelius, 2007;May, 2005;RamcilovicSuominen and Hansen, 2012), which apply different compliance measures -including discursive measures, information, cooperation, assistance, capacity building -according to variations in social and ecological contexts need to be explored and developed further.…”

“…The emerging literature on rule compliance suggests that traditional law enforcement approaches can promote instrumental motivations for compliance, but are often costly to implement (Gezelius, 2002(Gezelius, , 2004(Gezelius, , 2007May, 2005). The costs of implementation are especially high in situations where forests are distant from implementing agencies.…”