New Directions in Community Justice

Article

For some, 'community justice' conjures up images of vigilantism and mob rule. Others see it as a way of making criminal justice systems more responsive to local concerns. This report analyses the potential and limits of community justice approaches. While acknowledging the indispensable role of formal procedures and professionals, it argues that giving the Criminal Justice System a more local face and engaging more people in it, could increase confidence in the system, reduce concerns about crime, and lessen pressures for ever more punitive policies.

For some, 'community justice' conjures up images of vigilantism and mob rule. Others see it as a way of making criminal justice systems more responsive to local concerns.

This report analyses the potential and limits of community justice approaches. While acknowledging the indispensable role of formal procedures and professionals, it argues that giving the Criminal Justice System a more local face and engaging more people in it, could increase confidence in the system, reduce concerns about crime, and lessen pressures for ever more punitive policies.

Drawing lessons from international and home-grown initiatives, this report also makes a series of concrete recommendations as to how to how the Criminal Justice System in general, and the courts and probation in particular, could be brought closer to the people they exist to serve.

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