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The Power of Second-Order Legal Consciousness: Authorities’ Perceptions of “Street Policy” and Welfare Fraud Enforcement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Spencer Headworth
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Abstract

Legal authorities’ second-order legal consciousness—their perceptions of others’ understandings of law—shapes the social realization of legal power. Analysis of interviews with welfare fraud enforcement workers from five US states reveals their perceptions of how clients view law, policy, and enforcement practices, and shows these perceptions’ consequences. Enforcement workers’ perceptions influence the discretionary work of policy implementation, as fraud workers attempt to circumvent what they see as clients’ evasive maneuvers and act in ways they believe will influence clients’ thinking and behavior. Fraud workers’ second-order legal consciousness can also influence welfare law, when their perceptions of clients’ understandings and behaviors drive changes in written rules. Together, these effects demonstrate the power of authorities’ second-order legal consciousness to affect both law in action and law in books. Through documenting the impact of authorities’ second-order legal consciousness, this study fills an important gap in social scientific knowledge of how ongoing, dynamic processes of assessing others’ thinking and responding accordingly shape law-infused environments.

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Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 320 - 353
Copyright
© 2020 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

The author thanks the LSR reviewers for exceptional comments and critiques; Beth Hoffmann and John Robinson for helpful input on ideas and earlier drafts; participants in the “Legal Consciousness Across Contexts” panel at the 2019 meeting of the Law and Society Association for productive feedback; and Brian Kelly, Linda Renzulli, and Christie Sennott for advice.

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