NCJ Number
211782
Editor(s)
Jane Winstone,
Frank Pakes
Date Published
2005
Length
320 pages
Annotation
This book presents and assesses the concepts and delivery of "community justice" in Great Britain as a focal point in contemporary criminal justice, particularly in the work of the probation service.
Abstract
From the editors' perspective, "community justice" involves working with offenders, victims, and vulnerable groups to prevent crime, increase community safety, and mitigate the harms caused by crime through partnerships between the community and its representatives and criminal justice agencies. Early chapters explore the broad frameworks that inform community justice and current delivery arrangements. One chapter outlines the politics of risk in relation to criminal justice and probation, and another chapter explores the values that inform community justice and how they can be eroded under a climate of retribution and punitiveness. An exploration of the police role in community justice includes a historical overview of the ever-changing roles of the police service, with attention to the police role in multiagency efforts to prevent crime and address its causes. Organizational frameworks established to implement community justice in Great Britain are also discussed, after which the chapters turn to specific groups and the ways in which community justice, can, is, or will be implemented through voluntary and statutory agencies, policies, and legislation. Attention is given to community justice for youth in various contexts, hate-crime offenders, mentally ill offenders, substance abusers, and victims. The chapters note the continuing tension between the New Labour government's commitment to community justice and the complications of achieving a balance between the central government's initiatives and local initiatives, as well as maintaining the implementation of community justice concepts in the face of a punitive climate toward offenders. Chapter figures, tables, and references and a subject index