What is the impact of community service?

Abstract

Unpaid work by offenders-most commonly referred to as community service-is available as a penal measure in many countries worldwide and has become one of the most popular community sentences among the public and the judiciary. This is mainly because it serves numerous purposes and aims-such as diversion from custody, reduced costs to the criminal justice system, reparation and rehabilitation-and because it can be seen to provide tangible benefits for the community. This same diversity, however, means that the effectiveness of community service may be assessed in a number of ways and its popularity as a penal sanction has also resulted in accusations that it may serve to widen the net of social control.