Work to Benefit the Community - A Punishment of Substitution?

• NCJ Number: 90814
• Journal: Revue de droit penal et de criminologie Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1982) Pages: 3-31
• Author(s): P DeCant
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 29 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: French
• Country: Belgium
• Note: Speech to commemorate the re-opening of the Brussels Court of Appeals, September 1, 1981.

Annotation

Alternatives to incarceration involving community service work performed by criminals have been adopted or at least considered recently in many countries, but their implementation in Belgium is generally premature.

Abstract

In Great Britain, work to benefit the community has been authorized by a special law entitled the 'Community Service Order.' Community service for criminals in Great Britain was studied experimentally in six districts in 1973. Following a positive response from the public, the press, and probation officers, the Community Service Order was implemented in Scotland in 1977 and eventually throughout Great Britain. Community service work is ordered mainly in cases of home burglary, automobile theft, and shoplifting. No remuneration is given for completion of community service, and usually the tasks would not be performed at all if convicted criminals were not available to carry them out. In Great Britain, criminals' community service work is managed and supervised by probation officers, who are considered experts on social behavior. Attempts to implement alternative community service have not been as successful in Israel, the United States, France, or Germany. Although alternative community service would be welcomed in Belgium, the country does not have enough probation officers to implement such a program. Footnotes are supplied.