Community Justice: Exploring Theories, Practices, and Applications

This essay provides an overview of community justice, emphasizing its principles, practices, and applications within the legal system. It begins by highlighting the historical context and the shift from traditional justice models. The essay discusses the core principles of community justice, such as community involvement, crime prevention, and restorative justice. It contrasts community justice with traditional approaches, emphasizing the importance of addressing the root causes of crime and involving the community in the process. The essay also examines the effectiveness of community justice in various contexts, including juvenile matters and non-violent offenses, and points out the limitations in addressing major crimes. It concludes by stressing the importance of adapting strategies, including proper surveillance, victim protection, and active community participation, to enhance the effectiveness of community justice. The essay also mentions the importance of the legal system and the need for a strong justice system.

Running head: COMMUNITY JUSTICE
Community Justice
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Introduction:
Clarity and fairness are the two main policies of the justice system. Justice has
derived its origin from the ancient times (Kappeler & Potter, 2017). Plato has mentioned the
about justice in his writing. Justice plays an important role in case of legal system.
Considering the applicability in the legal system, William Penn introduced the phrase “justice
delayed is justice denied”. There are various justice system has been implemented to maintain
a discipline within a state like restorative justice or community justice. The main object of
community justice is to reduce the crime rate and prevent the commission of crime by
making a strong partnership with the communities. In community justice policy, problem
solving methods are applied to the offender and an attempt has been made to point out all the
sources of criminal activities.
Discussion:
There are certain principles laid down under the community justice. According to
this justice system, community is the main driving force and crime can be stopped if a strong
communication built within the community (Bazemore & Schiff, 2015). Community is
affected drastically after the commission of a crime. Therefore, the main objective of
community justice system is to reduce the commission of crime and prohibit all the possible
sources of crime. The problem solving nature of community justice has helped to protect the
victims and maintain peace within the society. According to this theory, when a crime has
been committed, it harms the victim and the society as well. If strong communication can be
built within a community, the chances of crimes can be curbed (Worrall, 2014).
Before the enactment of community justice, all the criminal matters were governed
by traditional justice. According to this principle, after the commission of crime, the

2COMMUNITY JUSTICE
offenders should be arrested and after the trial, he should be sent to prison. However, in this
process, no attempt had been made to stop the commission of crime. It only punished the
criminals. Therefore, demand for another justice method cropped up where the driving forces
of crimes can be pointed out and can be prevented in an effective manner. Community justice
system is based on that idea. A process of mediation is adopted by this system.
The system was introduced in the era of 60’s. This system has, to certain extent,
achieved its goal. However, it has been observed that the system has achieved its goal in case
of juvenile matters. The system is also helpful in case of non-violent offence or where the
offender has no previous criminal record. The community justice system has failed to prove
its credibility in case of major crimes (Neubauer & Fradella, 2018).
Conclusion:
The base of community justice system is quite strong. It is important to change the
strategies to certain aspects. Involvement of the society to prevent a crime is important, but
proper methods are also required to be adopted concurrently. Proper surveillance on the crime
affected area, protection to the victims and active participation of the society in the
prevention of crimes are necessary.

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Reference:
Bazemore, G., & Schiff, M. (2015). Restorative community justice: Repairing harm and
transforming communities. Routledge.
Kappeler, V. E., & Potter, G. W. (2017). The mythology of crime and criminal justice.
Waveland Press.
Neubauer, D. W., & Fradella, H. F. (2018). America's courts and the criminal justice system.
Cengage Learning.
Worrall, A. (2014). Punishment in the community: The future of criminal justice. Routledge.