Understand Community Justice

Community justice is a community-first model of justice, where people who have broken the law are held to account and supported to reconnect and contribute to their communities.

It means that some people, where it is safe to do so, receive community-based sentences. And the evidence shows that community justice can help people stop breaking the law again which leads to fewer victims and safer communities.

Photos of community justice across Scotland are available to download free from our national image library on Flickr

Community justice is exactly what Scotland needs. We imprison people more often than any other country in Europe and, in the majority of cases, it’s people from deprived backgrounds who we send there. Community justice sets out to break this cycle of disadvantage and trauma by supporting people to tackle the causes of their offending behaviour.

It’s a sentencing option that teaches skills and increases self-worth, resulting in less crime being committed leading to fewer victims. It might mean treatment for underlying issues such as drug or alcohol addiction, unpaid work, fines and compensation or restrictions of liberty such as electronic tagging and curfews. By keeping people in the community and not isolated from society, they learn, they integrate, and they contribute. It gives people a sense of pride in themselves and their community. And by reducing reoffending it makes Scotland safer for all.