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Vol. 14 No. 3

Engaged Research in a University Setting: Results and Reflections on Three Decades of a Partnership to Improve Juvenile Justice

Submitted
January 5, 2011
Published
2011-01-05

Abstract

Michigan State University’s Adolescent Project (MSUAP) was founded in the mid-1970s to create university-community collaboration through which innovative educational experiences would be offered, best practice intervention practices employed, and sound scientific methodology used to address the pressing social issue of juvenile delinquency. The project sought to create a more effective alternative to the juvenile justice system through the use of highly trained and supervised mentors (MSU undergraduate students); to scientifically examine the efficacy of this mentoring program, the relative efficacy of multiple intervention models, and the impact of the project on students, the university, and the local community; and, contingent upon success, to create a long-term collaboration between MSU and the local community. Through a series of longitudinal field experiments the project has demonstrated that youth who participated engaged in repeat offenses at significantly lower rates than those youth randomly assigned to a control group.