These 11 articles examine the role of communities in responding to crime and disorder and report on emerging, sustained alliances that communities are developing with various components of the criminal justice system as partners in that response.
Individual articles describe the role of the Department of Justice and the Office of Justice Programs in these efforts and present the perspectives of the communities and the components of the criminal justice system. They discuss the role of the Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety in involving community residents in community policing and the experiences of two neighborhoods in Savannah, Ga., and Baltimore that have undertaken broad-based community responses to crime through an emphasis on economic development. They also present a theoretical framework for understanding neighborhood crime prevention strategies and analyze the Federal role in supporting communitywide anti-crime initiatives. Other articles explain how the legal expertise of the prosecutor's office in Portland is helping address quality-of-life issues and examine the issues involved in operating an innovative, neighborhood-based organization in Harlem, New York City, to represent criminal defendants. The final two articles detail the historical foundations of the new community-based courts, describe three models, and present a theory and rational for a community-centered approach to corrections. Photographs and notes