Community Service as an Alternative to Imprisonment: The New Zealand Experience (From Community Service as an Alternative to the Prison Sentence, P 61-80, 1987 -- See NCJ-106907)

• NCJ Number: 106909
• Author(s): S J Callahan
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Description
• Language: English
• Country: West Germany (Former)

Annotation

After outlining the nature and aims of New Zealand's 12 sentencing options, this paper reports on an evaluative study of community service conducted by New Zealand's Department of Justice.

Abstract

Sentencing options are discharge without conviction, conviction and discharge, deferred sentence, reparation, fines, community service, periodic detention, supervision, community care, corrective training, imprisonment, and preventive detention. The evaluative research on community service studied 1,534 community service cases disposed in 1981 and 1982. The research examined the offense type, offender characteristics, and recidivism for offenders receiving community service and periodic detention. Over half of the cases involved property crimes, and 26.9 percent involved traffic offenses. Crimes against the person were involved in 16.4 percent of the cases. Community service was most often used for offenders not having serious criminal records who evidenced the sense of responsibility required to complete the community service order. It was used in cases where imprisonment was unlikely to be imposed. The reconviction rate for the community service group was 39 percent, compared to 59 percent for the periodic-detention offenders. 6 tables.