Community Penalties

Community penalties are court ordered punishments, falling between imprisonment and fines, and involve some contact by a criminal justice agency in a community based setting. There has been a big increase in their use in recent years, particularly in the context of new forms of technology (such as electronic tagging) and community based restorative justice conferences. Community penalties have been subject to different policy pressures, and it is not at all clear which of these will be dominant in the future. This book, based on papers originally presented at a Cropwood conference on the subject organized by the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, provides a key contribution to this debate. The contributors are leading academic authorities and practitioners in the field.

Community penalties are punishments that, in the courts' sentencing tariff, come between imprisonment and fines. They include electronic tagging, supervised unpaid work, and compulsory participation by offenders in treatment programmes.Recent years have seen many changes in England in the field of community penalties. These have included the rapid development of accredited offending behaviour programmes, and some new court orders such as the Referral Order for juveniles, based on the principles of restorative justice. Organisationally, too, the year 2001 sees a major change with the establishment of the National Probation Service for England and Wales.Community Penalties: change and challenges addresses the key issues facing community penalties at this critical time. Topics covered include the recent history of community penalties, partnership work, cognitive behavioural approaches to changing offenders' behaviour (and the need to look beyond these), compliance theory, accountability to the public and to the victim, accommodating difference and diversity in the delivery of community penalties, the use of technology in community penalties, and community penalties and issues of public safety.Community Penalties: change and challenges brings together many leading authors in this field. Together, they provide an authoritative review of a vital field of public policy.

1. Introduction - Community Penalties in England: The Contemporary Context 2. Community Penalties in Historical Context byMike Nellis 3. Community Penalties in the Perspectives of Contemporary Social Change byMark Liddle 4. Beyond Cognitive-behaviouralism: Reflections on the Effectiveness Literature bySue Rex 5. Compliance and Community Penalties byAnthony Bottoms 6. Compliance: A Manager's Perspective byAndrew Underdown 7. Accountability in the Delivery of Community Penalties: To Whom, for What and Why? byJudith Rumgay 8. Accommodating Difference and Diversity in Probation Practice byLoraine Gelsthorpe 9. Technology and the Future of Community Penalties byGeorge Mair 10. Community Penalties and Social Integration: 'Community' as Solution and as Problem byPeter Raynor 11. What Future for 'Public Safety' and 'Restorative Justice' in a System of Community Penalties byMichael E. Smith 12. Conclusions - Pathways to the Future