by John S. Goldkamp, Cheryl Irons-Guynn, and Doris Weiland
Crime and Justice Research Center
Community
prosecution initiatives put into practice the belief that crime
problems are best prevented and solved when community members work
with prosecutors and the police. As the community prosecution movement
grows, it is critical that communities develop the capacity to measure
the impact of these programs. This Bureau of Justice Assistance
(BJA) bulletin, which is organized by seven key dimensions shared
by community prosecution efforts nationwide, reviews what we have
learned about evaluating community prosecution sites.
Generally, community prosecution initiatives deploy prosecutors
or, in some jurisdictions, nonlegal staff in the community to identify
the public safety concerns of residents and to seek their participation
in developing and implementing strategies to address the problems
that are the community?s highest priorities. Community prosecution
represents a distinct departure from the case and conviction orientation
of traditional prosecution. Instead, community prosecution seeks
ways to prevent and reduce crime through initiatives that range
from cleaning up and maintaining public parks to using civil sanctions
to attack nuisance crime.
November 2002 |