Community Court
Neighborhood-focused problem-solving courts that apply a collaborative approach to local crime and safety.
A community court is a neighborhood-focused problem-solving court that applies a problem-solving approach to local crime and safety concerns. Community courts can take many forms, but all strive to create new relationships, both within the justice system and with outside stakeholders such as residents, merchants, churches and schools. Community courts emphasize collaboration, crime prevention, and improved outcomes, including lower recidivism and safer communities. Community courts are also sometimes referred to as community or neighborhood justice centers.
Quick Facts
- Role
- Basketball-themed community engagement initiative
- Affiliation
- Charlotte Hornets (NBA)
- Origin
- Launched in 2014 as part of the Hornets' expanded community outreach efforts
- Status
- Active core value of the organization
- Key focus
- Youth development and local charity
Lore & Background
The first community court in the United States was the Midtown Community Court, launched in 1993 in New York City. The court, which serves the Times Square neighborhood of Manhattan, targets quality-of-life offenses, such as prostitution, illegal vending, graffiti, shoplifting, farebeating, and vandalism. Operated as a public/private partnership among the New York State Unified Court System, New York City, and the Center for Court Innovation, the court initially opened as a three-year demonstration project. Research conducted by the National Center for State Courts on the implementation and early effects of the Midtown Community Court over its first 18 months found that the project achieved its key operational objectives: to provide speedier justice; to make justice visible in the community where crimes take place; to encourage enforcement of low-level crime; to marshal the energy of local residents, organizations and businesses to collaborate on developing community service and social service projects; and to demonstrate that communities are victimized by quality-of-life offenses. By 1997, the Court was arraigning an average of 65 cases per day for an annual total of over 16,000 cases. Over 30 community courts, inspired by the model of the Midtown Community Court, are in operation or planning around the U.S.
Reader's Guide
According to the Center for Court Innovation, community courts are animated by six key principles: restoring the community; bridging the gap between communities and courts; knitting together a fractured criminal justice system; helping offenders deal with problems that lead to crime; providing the courts with better information; and building a physical courthouse that reflects these ambitions. In Australia, a community court is the name given to Indigenous court proceedings conducted in the Magistrates Court of the Northern Territory.
Did You Know?
- By the end of 2010, there had been at least 19 separate evaluations conducted of community courts in the U.S., including 11 impact studies, nine process evaluations, and three cost-benefit analyses.
- A 2012 evaluation of the District of Columbia Superior Court's East of the River Community Court found that the program brought down rates of re-offending among misdemeanor defendants.
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