About the group
Forthcoming Events
Contact the Network
Online Discussion Group

About

Within the broad discipline of criminology, the term community justice has been in use for a number of years, with various meanings. For example, in the US a definition has been proposed that it should be used to refer to ‘all variants of crime prevention and justice activities that explicitly include the community in their processes and set the enhancement of community quality of life as a goal’. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government recently continued a tradition of defining the concept with reference to a range of agencies or organisations working together to address underlying causes of criminal behaviour to protect the public, reduce reoffending and support individual rehabilitative projects. This latter version of community justice has been closely aligned with the strategic aims and practices promoted by the National Probation Service of England & Wales, the Probation Board for Northern Ireland and the Community Justice Scotland. Conflict and contestation about the meaning of community justice, the practice of desistance, reform and rehabilitation, and the complexities surrounding the practices of non-custodial punishments across the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom provide a rich environment for scholarly enquiry and debate. The evolution and devolution of the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda in England & Wales identifies a particularly pertinent moment for criminologists, both academic and applied, to focus attention on probation & community justice.

This network exists as a forum to foster discourse and debate for academics at all stages of their career and to provide opportunities for engagement with practitioners, policy makers and the members of the public with an interest in probation and community justice.

Aims

1.      To advance understandings, critically examine and stimulate debate about community justice research from academic, policy and practice perspectives. The network places a particular emphasis on creating spaces for new voices to emerge by supporting opportunities for postgraduate and early career researchers to organize and lead events.

2.      To support networking between academics, researchers, practitioners and students interested in community justice research and issues.

3.      To provide a platform from which to promote academic contributions and interventions to contemporary debates about probation & community justice, including probation training, qualifications and the role of probation in the wider criminal justice system.

4.      To foster opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange within and between network members, the wider academic community, policy makers, practitioners, civil society actors and the general public.

Chairs/Co-Chairs

Dr James Tangen, University of Nottingham
Email: james.tangen@nottingham.ac.uk

Dr Matt Tidmarsh, University of Leeds
Email: M.J.Tidmarsh@leeds.ac.uk

Steering Committee

Dr Jamie Buchan (Edinburgh Napier University); Prof Nicola Carr (Trinity College Dublin); Dr Matt Cracknell (Brunel University); Dr Jane Dominey (University of Cambridge); Dr Kyros Hadjisergis (University of Wolverhampton); Michelle McDermott (University of Portsmouth); Dr Angus Nurse (Anglia Ruskin University); Dr Jake Phillips (Sheffield Hallam University);Prof Ester Ragonese (Liverpool John Moore’s University); Dr Natalie Rutter (Leeds Trinity University); Dr Matt Tidmarsh (University of Leeds); Dr Beth Weaver (Strathclyde University)