The chapter first explains why community corrections has not been empirically confirmed to have the characteristics commonly attributed to it. These characteristics are innovativeness, service provision that reduces crime, a changed relationship between the offender and the community, the development of a local constituency for corrections, no institutions, sanction value, and greater diversity in correctional options. A discussion of the types of community-correctional linkage notes that communities are fields of interaction in which a number of social systems intersect, producing a variety of forms and results. Three types of community corrections interactional fields are defined: community-run, community-placed, and community-based. The interactional field of "community-run" correctional programs is relatively circumscribed, free of external directives but also lacking statewide sources of financial support and technical expertise. Although relatively autonomous, on a formal level, from local political decisions and the relative wealth of any particular county, "community-placed" correctional programs have no direct linkages with local service agencies or local criminal justice agencies. "Community-based" programs enjoy the benefits but also operate under the constraints of their connections to both local and nonlocal policymaking and resource centers. Discussion questions.