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Future of the Community Prosecution Movement: Evaluating
What Works
Is community prosecution working? Measuring the impact of community
prosecution in its diverse adaptations begins with understanding
what it is and what it proposes to accomplish. The philosophy behind
community prosecution is to develop new collaborative relationships
in an effort to be more responsive to the crime-related concerns
of the community. As an innovation, many of its elements represent
notable departures from traditional operations, and prosecutors
who lead the efforts and those agencies that fund them need to agree
on and implement measures of impact, performance, and cost effectiveness.
The conceptual framework proposed in table
3 for evaluating community prosecution initiatives recognizes
the distinct and joint roles played by the prosecutor and the community.
Because community prosecution represents an effort to forge a new
working relationship between the two, not merely better public relations,
the prosecutor and the community must be viewed as both agents and
targets of change. Measurements of performance and impact should
factor in the new goals, roles, and desired outcomes for both the
prosecutor and the community.
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