Delinquency Prevention
From 1979 to 1984, OJJDP funded several national LRE projects—the American Bar Association (ABA) Division for Public Education, the Center for Civic Education, the Constitutional Rights Foundation (with the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago), Phi Alpha Delta Public Service Center, and Street Law, Inc.—to assess whether LRE programs could prevent juvenile delinquency. The research found that, if properly implemented, LRE could have significant positive effects on students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (National Law-Related Education Evaluation Project, 1984). The research determined that the distinguishing characteristics of the most effective LRE classes were as follows:- Adequate preparation and use of outside
resource persons who related
well to youth.
- Sufficient quality and quantity of
instruction.
- Interactive strategies to foster critical
thinking and positive peer interactions.
- Balanced curriculum materials that
presented all sides of controversial
issues and demonstrated the pros and
cons of decisions.
- Peer training and development of
support networks to foster fidelity
of program implementation.
- Strong administrative support that contributed to the institutionalization of LRE.
More recent research has supported LRE’s positive association with delinquency prevention. In their social development strategy, Catalano and Hawkins (1995) identified a number of risk factors that increase the likelihood that young people will engage in delinquent behaviors. Some of the risk factors are alienation or lack of bonding, early and frequent antisocial behavior, family conflict, family history of high-risk behaviors, family management problems, school failure, association with delinquent peers, poverty, community disorganization, and transitional or mobility issues. OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders supports programs that reduce these risk factors and develop protective factors. LRE is a delinquency prevention and intervention program that plays an important role in the development of protective factors.
Catalano and Hawkins (1995) identify bonding, or the sense of being connected to others, as one of the most critical protective factors in the development of healthy behaviors. LRE instruction consistently includes community resource persons in instructional strategies, thereby providing young people with opportunities to meet and bond with community role models. LRE routinely employs small group activities that not only encourage bonding among students in general but also give at-risk students the opportunity to interact and form bonds with nondelinquent peers.
Law-related education fosters the development of additional protective factors by teaching life skills such as problem solving, social competence, and autonomy.
Participation in mock trials and legislative hearings, moot courts, conflict resolution programs, service learning, youth courts, and other LRE activities enhances communication skills. These activities also help students identify various solutions to problems, assess options and consequences, gain new perspectives, and think critically. LRE group strategies develop social participation skills, including acceptance of differing views and cooperation. Evaluations of LRE programs in the past two decades have shown that LRE helps achieve these outcomes.1
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