Developing knowledge of the judicial system: A domain-specific approach

Italian students' understanding of the relation between Italy's judicial system and state and law was examined. The participants were in Ist, 3rd, 5th, and 8th grades and university. They were asked about judges and other figures involved in court proceedings, about who makes laws, and about how a person can learn the laws. First graders demonstrated poor knowledge regarding judges and attributed the job of deciding on penalties to the police. Third graders described judges as people working on their own who decide according to their wisdom. From fifth grade on, students depicted judges as public servants paid by the state, but only eighth graders stated that judges study and apply the law. Knowledge of other figures involved in court proceedings, such as lawyers, witnesses, and the jury, improved with increasing age. Only university students knew about the public prosecutor. The knowledge that laws are made by state organs appeared to precede the notion that the state pays the judge; the knowledge that laws are collected in books preceded awareness that to become a judge or lawyer, one must study law.