Center for Technology and Teacher Education

Juvenile Crime in America:
What Do We Value?

Procedures:

Introduction to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Program’s Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report. Explain the purpose of the report. This statistical report provides information on the national statistics of juvenile offenders and victims for 1999.
Divide students into six groups. Using the chapters of Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report as a guide, each group will:

Create a story around a juvenile crime using the perspective of the juvenile offender.
Describe the character’s social situation such as family, ethnic, and economic background.
Describe the situations that preceded and followed the crime for the offender.
Examine the causes that lead the person to becoming an offender and analyze the justice system’s response.
Create a story using the perspective of the victim in the same crime.
Describe the character’s social situation such as family, ethnic, and economic background.
Describe the situations that preceded and followed the crime for the victim.
Examine the perspective of the victim towards the offender.

Have each group read their stories to the class and discuss whether the punishment was fair from both perspectives.

Center for Technology and Teacher Education, University of Virginia. This module was created by Jeff Iannone and Michael J. Berson, Ph.D., University of South Florida.