Overview

One of the most important recent developments in criminal justice has been that of ‘neighbourhood’ or ‘community’ justice. Community justice recognises the important role that local communities play in responding to crime and provides a way to engage the community in identifying crime problems and solutions. Dealing with crime under a community justice model involves extending the role of the justice system to help build community resilience in relation to the problems that make crime possible or more likely. The first court established on a ‘community justice’ model was the Midtown Community Court, located in the Times Square district, New York, in 1993. Since then, the idea of community justice has gained wide acceptance and support. The Center for Court Innovation (New York) reports that more than 30 community court programs have been established in various jurisdictions in the United States. The first UK community court was established in Liverpool in 2005, followed by a further 12 courts around the United Kingdom in 2008. There are now community or neighbourhood courts in South Africa, Canada, Scotland, Singapore and Australia, with more scheduled to follow.

As with any new justice program, the establishment of new community courts involves the investment of substantial amounts of public funds. It is therefore critical that governments understand whether these programs provide benefits commensurate with the funds invested in them. However, the evaluation of community and neighbourhood courts, and the calculation of cost-benefit measures pose a number of significant challenges. These include the complexity of the program model and in particular, its reliance on engagement with community service providers, the relatively small scale of many programs and the difficulty in attributing outcomes to a single cause.

This Trends & Issues paper examines data from the first comprehensive Australian community justice initiative—the Neighbourhood Justice Centre (NJC) in the City of Yarra, Melbourne—and suggests a number of strategies to improve understanding of how programs like this contribute to improved justice and community outcomes.