ABSTRACT
Community prosecution emphasizes problem-solving, partnership and community engagement through a collaborative approach to prevent and control crime by having prosecutors and the community partner together to identify and address neighbourhood issues, and develop solutions collectively. It brings prosecutors together with other criminal justice officials, government workers, service-providers and community members to identify quality-of-life problems. The community prosecution consisted of six operational elements: a mix of proactive and reactive strategies, clearly defined target areas, emphasis on problem-solving, public safety, and quality-of-life issues, stakeholder partnerships, use of varied enforcement mechanisms and long-term strategizing. The chapter focuses on community prosecution, and particularly code enforcement activities involving teams of city attorneys and code enforcement officers in Dallas, Texas. The Dallas approach was based on the idea that prosecutors, working closely with code enforcement officers, could be more effective than traditional law enforcement-oriented approaches to the crime problem.
