Students will enter the project through a fast justice dilemma poll, hear a real juvenile case from a community partner, revise an initial stance, and leave with a first evidence-based claim about which response to crime may create the best outcome for the person, the victim, and the community.

Students will test first instincts about punishment, rehabilitation, and restorative justice, compare those ideas with a juvenile justice professional’s real case example, evaluate evidence and source usefulness, and draft a preliminary CER claim tied to Touching Spirit Bear and the community case.

Students will present and defend a concise case-based argument to an authentic audience, using evidence from Touching Spirit Bear and the juvenile case to justify the response to crime they judge most effective, then reflect on how their thinking about fairness, responsibility, and empathy has changed.