RT Article
T1 Empathy-Focused Learning: Teaching Criminal Justice Students to Care
JF American journal of criminal justice
VO 43
IS 2
SP 389
OP 410
A1 Keena, Linda
A2 Krieger-Sample, Laura
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1764207769
AB Today’s students show very little appreciation for the importance of empathy in community-based correctional treatment. This descriptive mixed-method study reports on a pilot program designed to examine how and to what extent a criminal justice education program enhanced or fostered empathy. Over a period of 7 years (2007–2014), 52 students participated in an intervention class, while 97 attended a controlled course. The study utilized a two-stage measurement technique involving a pencil and paper test of empathy and actual interviews with students. A phenomenological analysis was conducted to investigate how students understand and transform experiences into perceptions both individually and as shared meaning. A Paired Two Sample for Means t-test was computed on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) pre- and posttest data to analyze change in the students’ perceived empathy. The intervention group scores from pretest to posttest indicated a statistically significant change in students’ empathy levels in all seven subscales. This program should serve as a model curriculum for criminal justice students.
K1 Scholarship of teaching and learning
K1 Mixed-method research
K1 Community-based corrections
K1 Empathy
DO 10.1007/s12103-017-9385-7