Freakonomics for the law-the revolutionary behavioral science insights into how the law fails to reduce misbehavior, and what we can do about it.
Why do some laws radically change behavior whereas others are consistently ignored and routinely broken? Why do we keep relying on harsher and harsher punishment against crime even though that keeps failing?
Drawing upon decades of research, the authors reveal the behavioral code: the root causes and hidden forces that drive human behavior and our responses to society's laws. The book offers a fundamentally different approach to crime and injustice that is based in empirical science-rather than relying just on false intuitions.
The Behavioral Code shows that the law can only be effective if it moves beyond traditional sticks and carrots. In this authoritative book on law and human behavior, the authors explore the role of the behavioral code through engaging and unexpected examples, including:
• President George H. W. Bush's service dog, which demonstrates alternative therapies for violent crime
• Tennis star Maria Sharapova's doping experience, which teaches us why we must ensure that people have the capacity to follow the law
• A $2.3 billion Pfizer legal settlement which reveals that creating intuitively appealing programs like whistleblower protections will fail at reducing rampant corporate malfeasance
• An averted terrorist attack more than twice the size of 9/11 that shows how simple interventions grounded in the opportunity approach can effectively prevent harm
Highly entertaining and counterintuitive, The Behavioral Code catalyzes the conversation about how the law can respond to some of our most pressing issues today, including violent crime, police misconduct, environmental degradation, corporate crime, and pandemic mitigation.
