ABSTRACT
P ublic interaction with the law, the police, and the courts is an arena of persistent social conflict within the United States. Such conflict is natural and to some degree inevitable since one key task of legal authorities is to regulate public behavior. As a result, the police and courts are often in the position of either delivering outcomes to people in conflict that are less than they want or feel they deserve, or sanctioning or threatening to sanction people for doing things that they want to do. As a result, studies frequently find that people report dissatisfaction about their encounters with legal authorities. And dissatisfaction is not the only problem that emerges in such settings. They often lead to overt expressions of hostility and to conflicts that escalate into physical confrontations with legal authorities. It is easy for the bad feelings that develop from interactions with the police and the courts to spill into conflict and violence.
