THE GREEN BRIGADE: THE EFFECTS OF A COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAM ON ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS OF JUVENILE OFFENDERS.
Carol S. Dawson
Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2133Abstract:
In 1996, juveniles represented only 14.3% of the total population in the United States however, they accounted for 31% of all the crimes committed during that year. Overall, juvenile violent crime rate in 1997 was 60% higher than in 1987. The traditional approach to juvenile delinquency has been probation followed by incarceration. However, in the last 20 years, innovative community-based treatment and diversion programs have become popular. The Green Brigade™ program for juvenile offenders is one such program. The objectives of this study were to determine if participation in a horticultural program for juvenile offenders, the Green Brigade™ program, improved self-esteem, locus of control, interpersonal relationships, attitude toward school, horticultural knowledge and environmental attitude as well as decreased the crime rates of juvenile offenders participating in this program. Comparisons of participants of the Green Brigade™ program and a control group revealed that juvenile offenders participating in the Green Brigade™ program had significantly worse attitudes toward school and interpersonal relationships than adolescents in the control group. Participants of the Green Brigade™ program significantly improved their horticultural knowledge exam scores by 8% as a result of participating in the program. Participants also had a 7% improvement in their environmental attitude scores after completing the program. The Green Brigade™ program was also found to be as effective as traditional probationary programming at reducing the crime rates of juvenile offenders.
Research summary courtesy of Carol Dawson
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