Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Jane B. Robbins, Florida State University, College of Information. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 20, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 166 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

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The primary aim of this thesis is to reach a better empirical and theoretical understanding of what ‘community involvement’ means and what work it does in restorative justice. A case study approach was adopted to examine the involvement of the community in one selected practice of restorative justice, namely youth offender panels in England and Wales. Data collection comprised 127 interviews with key stakeholders involved in youth offender panels, as well as observation of 39 panel meetings, and analysis of related documents (e.g. panel reports and contracts). The role of ‘community’ in youth offender panels is argued to be more ‘theatrical’ (or rhetorical) than real: community panel members do not have a real say in the type or extent of reparation the offender should undergo, they do not clearly benefit from this reparation, and they do not support the reintegration of offenders into the community. The experience of youth offender panels suggests that the greater involvement of lay members of the community – or their changing role from mere witnesses/juries to facilitators – does not help to fully incorporate community harm into criminal justice practice. The English and Welsh experience also suggests that restorative justice advocates have placed unreasonably high expectations on the benefits of lay involvement. For example, this study found that lay members of the community do not have better ‘local knowledge’ than professionals. All in all, a key lesson from the experience of youth offender panels is that – while ignoring the kind of community that features in contemporary, urban contexts – restorative justice programmes run the risk of paying lip service to genuine community involvement. In conclusion, it is argued that restorative justice programmes need to start from a more concrete and up-to-date notion of community. While operationalizing community involvement, they need to acknowledge, all at once: the importance of place; the importance of family links, friendship and other social ties; and the importance of similar social traits and identities.

This thesis presents a body of work for the award of the Professional Doctorate in Social Work. Presented as three discrete but connecting projects, it is united by a broad interest in criminal justice sanctions and services and by a particular interest in the progression of participatory, person-centred and progressive approaches within that space. Project one consists of a recognised prior learning claim for 50% of the award and draws on four peer-refereed published papers. The first three papers contribute to developing criminological and professional debate on ‘what works?’ in supporting desistance from crime. The final paper locates recent justice ‘developments’ within Bauman’s analysis of consumerism and related debates about the commodification of public services. Project two reports on a funded study that set out to evaluate the impact of a staff training programme on the practice of community service supervision within a Scottish local authority. The commission and focus of this project reflects sustained attention to questions of what works in reducing re-offending and supporting desistance within community sanctions, and the reconsideration of these questions in spaces traditionally constructed in punitive rather than rehabilitative terms. The findings suggest that community service can provide people who offend with important opportunities for progression, desistance and change and that staff training has an important contribution to make to the progression of these outcomes. However, the findings also indicate that staff training is one of many important variables in this complex and multi-dimensional endeavour. Connecting with the above themes, the final and most substantial project presented explores the place and potential of those sentenced within criminal justice sanctions and services. Specifically, it explores the potential of co-production within this complex, contested and constrained space. As will be demonstrated, this is an important and topical area of inquiry, as are the methods used to progress it. The conclusion of this project is that co-production matters in justice. The detail and implications of this conclusion for justice policy, practice and research are discussed and explored.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The Master's thesis deals with alternatives to unconditional sentence of imprisonment, the main attention is given to alternative punishments in the strict sense, primarily to conditional sentence of imprisonment, conditional sentence of imprisonment with supervision, community service orders, pecuniary punishment and house-arrest. The study consists of introduction, 8 chapters and conclusion and discusses essential principles and bases of alternative punishments and also analyses substantive and procedural legislation of each alternative punishments in Czech Republic and draws attention to their positives and negatives. The first chapter explains the term "punishment" and describes the basic features of the absolute and the relative theories of punishment and also the purpose of punishment. In the last subchapter the study looks at basic principles that are applied for imposing sentences. Chapter Two and Chapter Three deal with conception of restorative justice that brought a new view to punishing of offenders and which is a starting point for issues of Probation and Mediation. Chapter Three explores the activities of Probation and Mediation Service in Czech Republic as an institution which is also entrusted the power of probation and mediation in the area of criminal law, but not only in this...

This article deals with the conceptualization and implementation of the constitutional rights of the people and human rights through conflict resolution systems in culturally different groups typical experience in Peru is the problem of the so-called “Special Indigenous Jurisdiction” or simply “Communal Justice”; In this sense, we will develop this Community Justice in the light of the experience of the Aymaras in Puno. / El presente artículo trata sobre la conceptualización y aplicación de los derechos constitucionales de la personas y de los derechos humanos a través de los sistemas de resolución de conflictos en grupos humanos culturalmente diferentes. Experiencia típica en el Perú es el problema de la denominada “Jurisdicción Especial Indígena” o simplemente “Justicia Comunal”, en este sentido, desarrollaremos esta Justica Comunal a la luz de la experiencia de los Aymaras de Huancané en Puno.