Understanding Juvenile Delinquency: The Impact of Service Learning Courses on Students and Youth Detainees

• In Event: Mentoring, Service Programming & Experiential Learning with Juveniles

Abstract

College professors across social science disciplines rely on juvenile detention centers as active learning ‘hot spots’ for students; utilizing these facilities to enhance student learning for reasons like accessibility, less threatening populations than adult prisons, students relate to youth detainees, and detention center staff is often eager to introduce college role models to the young offenders. However, service learning projects at detention centers are criticized for potentially placing students in danger and further stigmatizing youth detainees at the detention center. Additionally, the measurable gains students receive from visiting a detention center seem largely shaped by the time spent at the center, the overall organization of the course/project, and the types of interactions had between college students and the juvenile offenders. This paper explores the literature of service learning activities held at juvenile dentition centers followed by a case study of one such program. Qualitative data was analyzed to assess the impact of the program on both college students and the youth detainees that participated. This project was made possible by The Natural Springs Assessment Project grant.

Author

• Brooke M. Wagner, Wittenberg University