Community Justice

What are “high-impact areas” and how do they affect the criminal justice system?
What are the two assumptions inherent in the concept of community justice?
What is community justice?
How are criminal justice and social justice different?
Why is “place” so important in the concept of community justice?
What does the term “community” mean?
What are “life chances” and what things can affect them?
What are “hot spots”?
What is the premise of the broken windows theory?
What is social disorganization theory?
What is collective efficacy?

What were some of the factors that caused the police to lose contact with community?
What are the two aims of community oriented policing? Why are they important?
How does the fact that most citizens only encounter police officers when their lives are not routine affect relations between the community and the police?
How can strained relationships between citizens and the police affect the ability of the police to investigate crimes?
Explain the difference between authority and power. How does each of these affect the relationship between the police and the community?
Discuss the studies that led to the conclusion that the traditional way of doing policing was not working well.
Discuss some community-building strategies used in community policing.
What is Problem-Oriented Policing? What are some of the strategies it employs?
What is the difference between mediation and arbitration? Why should mediation be more successful than arbitration?
What is the SARA model of problem solving? What does each step involve? (Go to www.popcenter.org for a good explanation of this model. When you reach the site, click “What is POP?” on the left side of the homepage.)

Discuss the two main responsibilities of courts.
What are the core values that underly how courts do their work? How do they affect the responsibilities?
What are the four concepts that explain how courts work today? Explain each.
In a traditional court system, what has been the role of the victim?
Where did community courts originate? What were some of the positives and negatives of these early community courts?
The Midtown Community Court in New York was one of the first modern community courts. Why was it formed? How did it operate? Was it successful?
What is community prosecution? How does it work? Why do it?
What is the purpose of community-oriented sanctioning?
What are drug courts? What is their objective and what means do they utilize to achieve the objective?
What are teen courts? How do they work?
What are mental health courts? What is the purpose of establishing them?

What are the two types of correctional operations?
What are the themes in traditional correctional services?
What are the themes in correctional community justice?
How are traditional correctional themes integrated into the community justice framework?
What are some of the ways that community justice changes the functions of probation?
What are some of the ways that community justice changes the function of the jail?
What are some of the ways that community justice changes the function of the prison?
What are community justice centers? What are some of the programs that may be operated from community justice centers?
What are the basic concepts of restorative justice?

What are the three components of community justice? Explain the role of each.
What is the philosophy of the Involvement Model of community justice? What are some strengths and weaknesses of the model?
What is the philosophy of the Partnership Model of community justice? What are some strengths and weaknesses of the model?
What is the strategy of the Mobilization Model of community justice? What are some strengths and weaknesses of the model?
What is the Intermediary Model of community justice? What are some strengths and weaknesses of the model?
What are some considerations for choosing which model is appropriate to use?
Briefly discuss three of the issues in community justice.
What things must be done to strengthen the future of community justice?

Review Questions