An Evaluation of a Pilot Service-Learning Course for Criminal Justice Undergraduate Students

This article focuses on a pilot service-learning program implemented with undergraduate students enrolled in a juvenile delinquency course. An evaluation of the service-learning program on students' attitudes toward diversity, interpersonal skills, personal and intellectual development, and citizenship behavior using qualitative analysis is presented. The results indicate that the majority of students came to view the youth in a positive light, reported learning how to work with youth, experienced a reduction in stereotypes, gained career insights, learned how to apply academic theory to real-life experiences and developed attitudes about how society addresses delinquency that were sympathetic to the youths' condition.