Community Justice

808 Words4 Pages
Community justice and community policing are essentials and plays a vital role in the life of residents of the community. Like hands and gloves or lock and key, the two complement one another; as brine is the composition of water and salt, often the two are indistinguishable. In this paper, one will attempt to examine how the two contrast. Before plunging into contrasting community justice with that of community policing, one believe it prudent to briefly, yet broadly, provide a definition for each. From the National Institute of Justice, Ron Earle, a district attorney of Austin, Texas, define, or more accurately, view community justice as; "an effort to reweave the fabric of community by forging a partnership between local governmental…show more content…
Department of Justice. Community policing as the article define it, is; "a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime." (U.S. DOJ, 2014) The most notable and apparent difference between the two is that while both community justice and community policing involves the subject of criminal justice in dealing with strategies of reducing criminal activities and crime rates, with the aim of achieving public safety; community justice goes a step further beyond crimes with its additional focus on the quality of life in the community (Clear, Hamilton, & Cadora, 2011). CONTRASTING COMMUNITY JUSTICE WITH COMMUNITY POLICING 3 Community policing focuses primarily on building and strengthening relationship between community police and the community they serves, in the attempt to better understand the need of the community and pinpoint its local problems and concerns (Clear, Hamilton, & Cadora, 2011). Community justice, on the other hand, in the aim of public safety, has…show more content…
There are a wide variety of concrete examples of community policing through the many programs it has. Of the many programs available, here we will only examine four of these programs addressing different age group. Addressing young students at the elementary school level, programs such as the "School Safety Santa" help police officer teach these young students about personal safety; by means of an officers dressed in a Santa suit handing out gift and holiday cards (SPD, 2007). For elementary school students the D.A.R.E or "Drug Abuse Resistance Education" program is often implemented; a partnership program between police departments with local elementary schools, through which police officers informs student of personal safety, focusing on building self-esteem, that of resisting peer pressure, providing information about drugs and the consequences associated with it (SPD, 2007). Such program is conducted through group discussion, role playing and above all else active participation and open communication. A well known program targeting high school students is that of "Every 15 Minutes"; a program designed to discourage high school students from drinking and
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