NCJ Number
177697
Journal
Contemporary Justice Review Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: 1998 Pages: 71-85
Date Published
1998
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The "community" has been conceptualized in various ways by current community justice initiatives, especially by community policing and restorative justice initiatives that have tended to define community rather loosely.
Abstract
The way community is defined has significant consequences for community justice initiatives not only because the definition of community affects the way such initiatives are designed and implemented but also, because it may cause confusion about underlying values and may undermine the goals of community justice. Community is defined as personal connectedness both to other individuals and to a group, and building community involves developing bonds between human beings. The potential of community justice initiatives to empower and build community has strong popular appeal. For these initiatives to be effective, they must capitalize on the fact that people act in a certain way because they want to avoid experiencing the external shame of disapproval by individuals they care about and because of the internal shame experienced through conscience. A primary goal of community justice should be to mobilize informal social control mechanisms by strengthening, creating, or restoring healthy interdependencies or by encouraging the development of mature internalized control or conscience. The concept of community is examined in terms of community policing, restorative justice, restorative policing, and community-government links. 35 references and 1 note