NCJ Number
240919
Date Published
December 2012
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This report explored community justice across the Unite States and how citizens are engaging in and contributing to the health of the neighborhoods where they work and live.
Abstract
This report provides information collected from 20 participants whose input described their involvement in community justice, including their goals, how they define "community," how they promote restorative practices and engage communities, and the obstacles they've overcome. Overall, participants extoled the benefits of community justice, such as its ability to enhance public trust in government and provide law and justice agencies with more tools to both respond to and prevent crime. Also examined were ways to engage communities and recruit volunteers. Like many promising approaches, community justice has been striving to show positive results despite budgetary constraints. In some ways, the current economic climate, combined with the growing emphasis on evidence-based practices, is a perfect opportunity for community justice to win advocates. As the number and variety of initiatives inspired by community justice has grown, the Center for Court Innovation has continued to encourage discussion. As part of that effort, a group of policymakers and practitioners were invited to its Manhattan headquarters in August 2011 to focus on two themes: the strategies community justice initiatives use today to engage ordinary people in their work, and the emphasis many programs place on restorative justice. Roundtable participants represented a range of local, State, and Federal initiatives involved in restorative justice, including community courts, community justice panels, community prosecution and holistic defense programs, as well as the Federally-supported Drug-Free Communities program. This paper summarizes their discussion. Appendix and notes