Tom R. Tyler (born March 3, 1950) is a professor of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

, known for his contributions to understanding why people obey the law. A 2012 review article on

procedural justice Procedural justice is the idea of fairness in the processes that resolve disputes and allocate resources. One aspect of procedural justice is related to discussions of the administration of justice and legal proceedings. This sense of procedura ...

by Anthony Bottoms and Justice Tankebe noted that, "Unquestionably the dominant theoretical approach to legitimacy within these disciplines is that of '

,' based especially on the work of Tom Tyler.". Professor Tyler was at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, where he was a University Professor, from 1997 until he joined the faculty at Yale in January 2012. He earned his B.A. from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and Ph.D. from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

. In 2024, he was awarded the world's most prestigious award in the field of criminology - The Stockholm Prize in Criminology - for his research on procedural justice.

Scholarship

Tyler is the author or co-author of 9 books and an editor for 6 others. His widely cited 1990 book on ''Why People Obey the Law'' was republished in 2006 with a new afterword discussing more recent research and changes in his thinking since its initial publication. Tyler and Huo (2002) is based on surveys of people in different ethnic groups to understand their concepts of justice. They found that minority African-Americans and Hispanics have essentially the same concept of justice as majority whites but different experiences. They describe two alternative strategies for effective law enforcement: * Deterrence: effective but inefficient * Process-based: efficient and effective The difference in efficiency follows, because people who perceive that they may be victimized unfairly by law enforcement are less likely to cooperate. Tyler and Huo's analyses suggests that biased, unprofessional behavior of police, prosecutors and judges not only produces concerns of injustice, it cripples law enforcement efforts by making it more difficult for police and prosecutors to obtain the evidence needed to convict guilty parties. Tyler and Blader (2000) discussed

and cooperative behavior and how they impact the performance of more general groups through their effect on social identity and cooperative behavior.

Works cited

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Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyler, Tom R. Yale Law School faculty Living people 1950 births American social psychologists Academics from Columbus, Ohio University of California, Los Angeles alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni