Community Penalties

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 by Mike Nellis 3. Community Penalties in the Perspectives of Contemporary Social Change by Mark Liddle 4. Beyond Cognitive-behaviouralism: Reflections on the Effectiveness Literature by Sue Rex 5. Compliance and Community Penalties by Anthony Bottoms 6. Compliance: A Manager's Perspective by Andrew Underdown 7. Accountability in the Delivery of Community Penalties: To Whom, for What and Why? by Judith Rumgay 8. Accommodating Difference and Diversity in Probation Practice by Loraine Gelsthorpe 9. Technology and the Future of Community Penalties by George Mair 10. Community Penalties and Social Integration: 'Community' as Solution and as Problem by Peter Raynor 11. What Future for 'Public Safety' and 'Restorative Justice' in a System of Community Penalties by Michael E. Smith 12. Conclusions - Pathways to the Future