NCJ Number
173263
Date Published
1998
Length
106 pages
Annotation
This guide seeks to inform judges, court administrators, criminal justice system officials, and community leaders about lessons that have been learned by localities as the result of court-community collaboration.
Abstract
Court-community collaboration offers a new orientation to criminal justice administration and contributes to the creation of a criminal justice system that is genuinely rooted in communities. The guide concentrates on the specific concerns of trial courts but also examines issues related to court participation in broad community justice initiatives. Guide contents are designed to relate to a wide range of courts and communities and to apply to the full range of topics court- community collaboration can address. The first chapter of the guide offers a rationale for court-community collaboration and considers some of the broad issues associated with initiating collaborative ventures with the community. The second chapter poses a series of frequently encountered questions to be considered when developing, implementing, and maintaining a court-community collaboration. The third chapter looks at some of the key arenas in which court-community collaboration operates, while the fourth chapter recaps the promise of court-community collaboration. The guide points out court-community collaboration is typically useful in cases involving domestic violence, drug use, drunk driving, handgun violence, juvenile delinquency, and public nuisance crime. An appendix contains program descriptions of eight court-community collaborations in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. A directory of resources is included.