NCJ Number
90124
Journal
Journal of Social Studies Research Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1982) Pages: 22-28
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This paper describes the development of an instrument to measure the effects of law-related instructional programs in public schools by assessing their impact on attitudes.
Abstract
An Attitude-Behavior Scale: Law Education (ABS:LE) was developed to measure attitudes toward the law, legal processes, crime, criminals, and punishment. The scale, which contains 35 items, was developed through an application of Guttman facet theory. Facet theory and analysis consider not only the direction and intensity of an expressed feeling toward the object but also account for classes of feeling. Essentially, facet design is used to establish the content of a research instrument by a semantic, logical, a priori technique and to hypothesize the order that results from the data. It is used to reduce the often-reported discrepancy between expressions of normative behavior and actual behavior by posing various levels of questions about the same phenomenon. Three groups were chosen for study on the basis of projected variability (positive to negative) in attitudes toward the law: (1) 304 elementary school students, (2) 112 junior high school students, and (3) 53 juvenile offenders confined in a State training school. It was assumed that these groups would exhibit differences in the variables the literature identifies as being correlates of law-related attitudes: locus of control, delinquent status, knowledge of the law, and contact with the legal system. Reliability estimates for the ABS:LE were calculated for each of the three population categories. Findings suggest that the locus of control construct (internal or external locus of control for the subject) and status as a juvenile offender are the best, albeit modest, predictors of law-related attitudes. Persons with an internal locus of control tend to have more positive attitudes toward the law. Facet design appears to offer the mechanism for the refinement of instruments for assessing the value of law-related public education courses. Thirty-one references are provided along with tabular data.