ABSTRACT
Numerous initiatives are being advanced under the banner of community justice. Community justice reconciles crime control and justice concerns by focusing on the broader goal of enhancing the quality of community life. This chapter illustrates the unique challenges of evaluating community justice initiatives. In New South Wales, Australia, a unique community policing initiative created a mechanism for community participation and problem solving in the criminal justice system. The mutuality principle endorses disincentives for antisocial behavior: holding offenders accountable for the damage they have caused, increasing the risks of criminal detection, making criminal targets less vulnerable, and reducing the rewards of criminal behavior. The principle of inclusion asserts that communal membership is not cheaply bought or sold. Drug courts are an important example of the inclusion principle because they indicate a shift in perspective that accepts substance abusers as troubled members of the community in need of help rather than social misfits in need of exile through incarceration.
