Police departments and, to varying degrees, prosecutors’ offices, are moving toward community justice initiatives in which community members are brought into the criminal justice process as partners. The current article focuses on the numerous “community prosecution” programs burgeoning around the country. Given the amount of power wielded by prosecutors’ offices, there should be a widespread and explicit dialog concerning the implications of such “community prosecution” programs and a corresponding dialog regarding the goals, values, and optimal methods of a community-oriented prosecutorial approach. This article attempts to begin such a dialog by reviewing, in part 1, the key elements of the traditional prosecutorial approach as a basis for comparison with the alternative community-based approach. Part 2 then focuses on the elements driving and constraining the movement toward a community prosecution model and considers the lessons learned from experiments in community prosecution. The impediments to a community-oriented prosecution approach are also discussed, followed by an analysis of lessons learned from both previous prosecution models and contemporary community prosecution programs. Part 3 offers the author’s vision of community prosecution as a framework for future experimentation with community prosecution initiatives. The central mission of the proposed community-oriented prosecution approach steps away from a myopic focus on individual criminal transgressions and offenders and expands the role of the prosecutor to include a wide range of problem-solving efforts that address the circumstances leading to crime. While it is too early to state with certainty the elements essential to a successful community prosecution approach, it is necessary to engage in critical evaluation and discussion in order to inform and shape the community-oriented movement.