Control over environmental events has been shown to reduce the behavioral and psychological impact of environmental stress. To assess the effect of residence hall judicial policies on attitudes toward rule violating behavior, 93 college freshmen (36 males, 56 females, 1 unreported), randomly assigned to one of four dormitories (social contract or student authority; external or no student authority; or two control dormitories), completed a self-report questionnaire on attitudes toward rule violating behavior. In the social contract dormitory students rotated participation on a hearing board; in the external authority dormitory rule enforcement decisions were made by the hall director; and in the two control dormitories rule enforcement was the responsibility of the student hall staff. The attitude measure was administered in the fall and spring of the school year. An analysis of the results showed that students who were given control over their dormitory judicial systems expressed attitudes less tolerant of role violating behaviors (destructive activities, alcohol/drug activities, and disruptive activities) than did students having no control over rule enforcement. The findings provide evidence that attitudes can be effected through modeling the social environment and fostering a sense of personal control. (BL)