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Community Justice: Striving for Safe, Secure, and Just Communities

NCJ Number
163993
Date Published
1996
Length
49 pages
Annotation
Eight papers focus on the definition of the term "Community Justice" and provide examples of its practical and potential application.
Abstract
The first paper notes a paradigm shift in criminal justice away from the offender and toward the community and crime victims. Under the "Community Justice" paradigm, the focus is on doing justice, promoting secure communities, restoring crime victims, and promoting non-criminal options. Some practical examples of community justice cited in the first paper are community policing, community prosecution, and community courts. The second paper addresses community policing as an aspect of community justice. Topics discussed include the limitations of traditional policing, the principles of community policing, and the role of community policing in a community criminal justice system. The third paper discusses the concept of "restorative justice" in corrections. Restorative justice advocates community service and victim restitution that hold offenders accountable by having them provide benefits to the community and the victim that help restore the damage done by the crime. Other papers discuss community-based corrections, community probation, the use of community reparative boards in Vermont, the role of risk assessment in community corrections, and neighborhood supervision. References accompany the papers