Compliance with the law
When we identify a behaviour that we want to discourage , we often turn to the law in an attempt to make that behaviour less attractive . When we then promote the legal consequences of that behaviour , we hope that we can influence rational people to decide not to do it anymore . By increasing the consequences of being caught , we hope that the benefits of doing it seem less attractive .
When we attempt to make people behave by relying on the fear of getting caught and the consequences of getting caught , we call this instrumental compliance . This relies on ( firstly ) identifying offending behaviour and ( secondly ) successfully punishing it . Without this threat , people who are motivated only by the fear of punishment will not be deterred . The penalty could be incredibly severe , but if nobody believes they are likely to receive it , it will be irrelevant . With a decline in roads policing officer numbers , and no viable technological alternative , this is increasingly problematic - and recent research suggests that 54 % of drivers believe that they can use a mobile phone while driving without getting caught ¹.
Alternatively , people may comply because they think it is the right thing to do . This is known as normative commitment . Rather than focusing on prosecution and penalties , efforts to increase normative compliance are likely to focus on education and engagement .
A combination of normative and instrumental approaches is likely to influence the largest number of people , and to impact on their different motivations . A focus simply on instrumental compliance will be resource intensive and , as soon as we stop enforcing the law , or enforce it somewhere else , we will find that offending resumes .
See p60-61 for more on charging options
¹ The AA . ( 2018 ). What ’ s the chance of being caught for a driving offence ? News report . Available from : https :// www . theaa . com / about-us / newsroom / driving-offence-enforcement .
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