Recent studies on child and adolescent development have focused new interest on children’s behavior toward law, specifically on the development of children’s ties to law and legal actors. The developmental process through which these relations develop is identified as legal socialization. This paper identifies the process of legal socialization that unfolds over time and age, and produces changing values and perceptions of law and legal actors. Adolescents seem to initially believe that the law and legal authorities are legitimate, but that belief declines for some adolescents over time, and that the legitimacy of law and legal authorities shapes compliance with the law, and that these effects covary with social contexts including neighborhood. Tables, appendix A-B, and references