The Impact of Participating in a Juvenile Offender Mentorship Course on Students’ Perceptions of the Legal System and Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

The current study examined how a mentorship course, whereby students work with juvenile offenders, influenced their perceptions of the legal system and juvenile offenders. Undergraduate students (N = 13) enrolled in a course centered around mentoring juvenile offenders. Students attended lecture to learn the theoretical and conceptual background of juvenile justice and juvenile offenders. Additionally, students were expected to meet with their mentee, a juvenile offender, once a week. Measures concerning attitudes toward juvenile offenders were given the first day of class and again on the last day of class. Overall, attitudes were shown to change from pre- to post-testing; specifically, attitudes toward juvenile offenders were significantly more positive at post-test. As demonstrated in this study, both in-class material and hands on application of course material can influence student attitudes toward a given population and also encourages them to engage in higher order levels of thinking.

Keywords:

• Teaching
• psychology
• attitudes
• juvenile offenders
• service-learning class

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emily Pica

Dr. Emily Pica is an assistant professor at Austin Peay State University. Her research focuses on wrongful convictions, juror decision making, and factors that impact eyewitness memory and the collection of eyewitness evidence.

Jessica A. Fripp

Dr. Jessica A. Fripp is an Assistant Professor at Austin Peay State University. Prior to becoming a counselor educator, Dr. Fripp served as a mental health counselor, where her primary population included low income communities. Dr. Fripp's training, development, and scholarship efforts include strategies to increase counseling engagement through identifying cultural factors, attitudes, and perceptions that prevent Black people from seeking counseling services.