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Authority as Assistance: Courts and Police in Community Policy

NCJ Number
145698
Author(s)
C Dourlens; P A Vidal-Naquet
Date Published
1993
Length
190 pages
Annotation
Police and courts in France are now becoming partners in local politics, in part as a result of the movement to community policing and law enforcement cooperation with social services in improving neighborhoods.
Abstract
By taking part in "community crime prevention committees," police and courts have provided more flexible means of both preventing and repressing crime. The authors discuss the moral crisis facing criminal justice today, the tension between liberal and repressive views of justice suggesting a third model, whereby criminal justice places itself at the disposition of the people, through greater involvement in neighborhood life and problem- solving. In the French town of Valence, the criminal justice system promoted solving petty conflicts by appointing mediators from within the neighborhoods instead of waiting till the cases became more serious and reached the courts. A somewhat different approach was taken in Lyon when in 1990 small courts' "houses of justice and law," were established throughout the city and its surrounding area; these attempted to resolve local conflicts, too, but they had sentencing authority. Both examples illustrate a deeper involvement of criminal justice in preventing escalation of petty crimes to more serious crimes. The authors discuss the history of criminal justice partnerships with community groups in France, citing in particular the experience of Marseille with community policing and similar initiatives, and also recent "recentralization" of police efforts to deal with violent crime and drug trafficking.