Public perceptions of and confidence in the community justice court

<p>Abstract copyright data collection owner.</p>This data was collected as part of a larger project which was a case study of a community justice court (CJC) located within the Magistrates' Courts in a large city in England. As part of this project, the investigators were concerned to understand the impact of the Court's particular procedures on public confidence in justice processes. The procedures which were unique to this court were the use of problem solving meetings prior to sentencing by the Magistrates. In order to assess public perceptions of the community justice court procedures and their confidence in these procedures, eleven focus groups were conducted between October and December, 2013. The procedure involved inviting participants in each focus group to spend 2-3 hours in public area of the court on the days that the CJC ran. They were asked to observe all cases that were heard in the courts during this period. After the period of observation the participants were invited back to the University and participated in a focus group discussion. The focus groups lasted between half to one and half hours, there were a minimum of two and a maximum of 5 people in each group. Participants were recruited from advertisements around the university and through an article which appeared in the local newspaper which described the project and encouraged people to participate. Participants were either students at the university or members of the public with a proportion drawn from the University of the Third Age. The focus groups were recorded and transcribed orthographically. The data in this data collection consists of the anonymised transcripts of these focus group sessions.<p>Project description:</p>This project undertook a detailed investigation of how the community justice court in Plymouth works. Community justice is focused on low risk offenders and in principle has two distinctive components: problem solving whereby the background of offenders is examined and areas of support identified, and links to the community so that social problems and ways of addressing them through the courts can be identified. This project: > assessed what impact the community court has on re-offending and desistance from crime > develop an understanding of how cases are identified as suitable for the community court and then selected for problem solving > examined how problem solving meetings are actually conducted > investigated how members of the community perceive the court and assess their confidence in its operation. A range of methods were used, including qualitative interviewing, ethnographic observation and conversation analysis of problem solving meetings. In addition, quantitative methods for assessing re-offending and focus groups to assess confidence in the courts were used. The results have been and continue to be disseminated within the criminal justice system and to local communities to improve understanding of how community justice works, and to help develop the skills of those involved in the operation of the court