ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the rehabilitative potential of community service. It provides an outline of the history of community service in England and Wales following its introduction as a sanction in the early 1970s, through to its various iterations in the intervening years, and up to its current status as the ‘Unpaid Work’ requirement, which can be imposed as part of a Community Order or Suspended Sentence Order. We highlight how there has been an increased emphasis placed on the punitive dimension of this requirement, as well as on its visibility as a form of sanction. We note that despite the potential for ‘Unpaid Work’ to develop employability skills and wider social capital, as well as to communicate positive messages about reparation, there has been insufficient attention paid to these possibilities to date. By drawing on a range of research as well as practice examples we highlight prospects for development.
