Legal Education to Arrest Delinquency

Youth today face a vast array of decisions and challenges. A wrong decision on their part can mean running afoul of the law and being labeled a "delinquent." In 1989, 34,811 crimes were committed by juveniles in Indiana.1 Juvenile delinquency is an outward symptom of the deeper social ills afflicting at-risk youth.

Although Extension agents have little difficulty diagnosing the personal, educational, and related social profiles of these youth, solutions and effective programs for working with youth at risk evade Extension's grasp. The majority of young people at risk lack self-esteem and the capacity to achieve. They're trivialized and relegated, at best, to ever-decreasing job levels, and, at worst, to correctional institutions where per- capita costs are many times greater than the costs of effective prevention.

Law-related education is an essential element of every child's educational experience, but it's even more crucial for the growing number of at-risk youth. Research indicates law- related education can help students have a better self-image, fewer feelings of isolation from teachers and others, and a greater interest in education.

While many juvenile delinquency prevention programs have been implemented through the schools, they're most often directed toward the upper grades where they are too late to be effective. Other programs focus on intervention, reaching youth after their first negative encounter with the law. That's why the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service developed Project LEAD (Legal Education to Arrest Delinquency) as a special 4-H curriculum targeting youth in late elementary school before they become delinquent. Youth at this age are beginning to make their own decisions; yet, they're still open to experiences aimed at influencing their attitudes and perceptions of society.

Project LEAD is designed to prevent delinquency by positively affecting attitudes of youth at risk. It aims to:

• Demonstrate the necessity for laws and provide adolescents with an understanding of the legal system relevant to their lives.

• Give young people an opportunity to meet with law enforcement officials in a nonthreatening environment.

• Help learners clarify their attitudes, values, and perceptions about the law and our legal system, and discuss alternative solutions to common problems facing juveniles.

• Help students examine and express their individual views of law and order in terms of their personal experiences, attitudes, and values through discussion, role playing, writing, and art.

• Demonstrate that conflict is a characteristic of growth and development, both of individuals and society, and show that compromise and resolution through lawful processes are unequaled in resolving conflict.

The Project LEAD curriculum was designed with both youth and facilitators in mind. The core of the curriculum is a manual, Putting Yourself in the Other Person's Shoes, that contains 14 activities. Through these activities, participants can view situations both from their own perspective and the perspectives of others. For example, in Activity 1-Why We Act the Way We Act- there's the case of Mr. Hanner who's been caught speeding. Participants are asked to pretend they're the police officer and respond to several different scenarios based on Mr. Hanner's circumstances.

Many of the activities involve dilemmas that force children to think through alternative responses to varying situations, enabling them to see the consequences of decisions and empowering them to make better choices. They explore how laws are made, examine the need for laws in an ordered society, make choices related to rules and laws, study the legal rights of juveniles, and explore the legal system. Activities portray scenarios in an easy-to-read format and feature illustrations that may double as art projects. A directory of related audiovisual materials provides additional support.

Project LEAD can be facilitated by any interested adult with only minimal training (a videotape has been produced for that purpose). The project can also be used in a variety of settings- community youth groups, 4-H Clubs, and schools. The program's design gives facilitators the flexibility to cover the 14 activities in any order and vary the number of guest speakers and field trips, depending on resources. In one successful model used in schools, either classroom teachers or community volunteers lead students through the activities.

Representatives of the judicial system, law enforcement agencies, lawyers, and probation officials serve as resources. Therefore, the teacher or volunteer facilitator doesn't have to be a legal expert to coordinate the program. In addition to outside speakers, field trips to tour juvenile detention facilities, view court proceedings, and visit law enforcement facilities provide youth with a nonthreatening way to interact with the legal system.

A major strength of this community-based educational program is the linkages (in many cases for the first time) among schools, the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service, and local judges, lawyers, and law enforcement officials. As a result, students not only benefit from the vast knowledge and experience of community leaders participating in the teaching/learning process, but they also learn about careers. At the local level, implementation of Project LEAD is facilitated and guided by an action committee the county Extension agent usually coordinates.

Project LEAD's effectiveness is evaluated using the Scale of Juvenile Legal Attitudes (SJLA). This computer-scored attitudinal scale, developed at Purdue University, is administered to each student before and after the program to measure changes in attitudes related to participation in LEAD. The SJLA is made up of 28 Likert-type items presented on a five-point continuum from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." Some items are stated positively ("Laws are made by the people and for the people"), while others are stated negatively ("Most lawyers care more about making a lot of money than they do about helping people").

Preliminary analysis of pre-test and post-test data from 6,050 students in 23 counties indicates scores increased by an average of 3.52 points following participation in Project LEAD (pre-test mean = 104.37; post-test mean = 107.89). This statistically significant increase (using the Wilcoxon Match- Pairs Signed Ranks Test) has a two-tailed probability of .0001, which indicates there's little chance the increase occurred by chance. Thus, the difference between pre-test and post-test scores appear related to participation in LEAD.

On a more subjective level, students have reacted to Project LEAD with enthusiasm:

• "I've enjoyed Project LEAD. You helped us to stand up for ourselves. We're learning to take control of ourselves."

• "I learned (not to be) with the wrong people. If my friends are going to steal, I'll leave without them."

Project LEAD has also been the subject of two editorials in Indiana newspapers. The Lafayette Journal and Courier praised the program:

It requires great imagination for an educator to think up a visiting-lecturer program as good as this one, and no imagination at all to picture all the potential good it can do if multiplied for the benefit of other grade levels in other schools.

It is good to know that-teacher contract hassle headlines to the contrary-innovative and convincing forms of education still are being invented, and put into practice, by dedicated educators.2

Project LEAD is having a positive impact on the lives of both rural and nonrural youngsters. It presently is being used in 24 Indiana counties with 8,957 student participants. The program also has been adopted by Cooperative Extension Services in four other states.

However, one-time programs alone aren't enough to solve the problem of juvenile delinquency. There must be continued and increased collaboration among community youth-serving organizations, local schools, the legal community, and Extension to deliver programs to youth throughout their formative years.

1. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Report (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, 1989).

2. Lafayette Journal and Courier (Indiana), November 8,1989, p. 8.