Abstract

Legal socialization is a process of enforcing rule-of-law in a community through attitude and behavioral support of each community member. The present paper examines the means and ways in which this process could be conducted. The author of the paper, an Armenian National, has been a part of the ZANG Armenian Legal Socialization project supported by the US Department of State's Bureau for Narcotics, and International Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), and implemented by Project Harmony. The goal of the project is the creation of educational material for the schools of Armenia that will promote and encourage the process of legal socialization in Armenia. As a part of that project, a delegation of Armenian Ministry officials spent two weeks during December of 2003 in Vermont and Massachusetts to study the American model of Legal Socialization. Being a part of the Project Harmony staff, the author of this study spent her time on studying the attitudes of Armenian 9th grade children towards the Armenian police and teachers. She met with U.S. professionals prior to the Armenian delegation's arrival to USA, elaborated the program to host the Armenian delegation in USA, and to find out which parts of the US model of legal socialization may work best in Armenia. In evaluating the situation of Armenia, the author has tried to apply a more holistic approach in her analysis, and to look at the problems in that country within the context of contemporary structural adjustments and poverty reduction strategies. The method of research included the analysis of115 questionnaires completed by 9th grade students, and 12 questionnaires completed by their teachers in four various regions of Armenia; observations of 15 meetings between US and Armenian specialists in the USA, and various interviews in Armenia and the United States.

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