The Behavioral Code: The Hidden Ways the Law Makes Us Better or Worse, Hardcover

Why do some laws radically change behavior whereas others are consistently ignored and routinely broken? Why do we keep relying on harsh punishment against crime even though it continues to fail?

Professors Benjamin van Rooij and Adam Fine present the first accessible analysis of behavioral jurisprudence, which will fundamentally alter how we understand the connection between law and human behavior. 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 Behavioral Code offers a necessary and different approach to battling crime and injustice that is based in understanding the science of human misconduct--rather than relying on punishment to shape behavior. The book will show how this code affects all of us using illustrative examples like:

- Park rangers in Arizona's Petrified Forest who worked with social psychologists to reduce theft--beginning by throwing out "no stealing" signs
- German walls that "pee back" at public urinators
- A $2.3 billion legal settlement against Pfizer that revealed how whistleblower protections fail to reduce corporate malfeasance
- NYC subway ads that reduced manspreading
- How Richmond, California, reduced gun violence by offering young firearm offenders $1,000 monthly rewards for good behavior

Revelatory and counterintuitive, The Behavioral Code catalyzes the conversation about how the law can effectively improve human conduct and respond to some of our most pressing issues today, from police misconduct to corporate malfeasance.

About author(s):Benjamin van Rooij, PhD, is a professor in law and society and the director of research at the School of Law at the University of Amsterdam and the Global Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine. Findings from his two decades of academic work have been featured in the New York Times, The Hill, NPR, and Huffington Post. His research on law and behavior was awarded a highly competitive and prestigious 2-million-Euro grant by the European Research Council.

Adam Fine, PhD, is an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice and of law and behavioral sciences at Arizona State University. His award-winning work has been funded by the US Department of Justice and a Visionary Grant from the American Psychological Foundation. His 40-plus publications have routinely appeared in the top journals in psychology and law, developmental psychology, public policy, criminology, and criminal justice.