Rethinking Community Sanctions: Social Justice and Penal Control

Julie Stubbs · Sophie Russell · Eileen Baldry · David Brown · Chris Cunneen · Melanie Schwartz

Aug 2023 · Emerald Group Publishing

About this ebook

Rethinking Community Sanctions: Social Justice and Penal Control redresses the invisibility of community sanctions in a popular imaginary dominated by the prison, resulting in their being seen as ‘not prison’, ‘not punishment’, a ‘let off’, or expression of mercy.

Based on insights from interviews with key participants in 3 Australian jurisdictions, case studies of selected programmes and policies, and the international literature, the authors focus on the effects of community sanctions among groups vulnerable to penal control: First Nations peoples, women, and those with disabilities, along with those at the intersections of these groups.

Arguing that developing a better, more democratic politics around community sanctions requires coming to terms with the wider carceral web in which vulnerable groups are ensnared, they demonstrate the importance of connecting criminal legal system struggles with broader movements for community control, self-determination, and sovereignty.

About the author

Julie Stubbs is Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney, Australia.

Sophie Russell is Research Associate for the Rethinking Community Sanctions Project at UNSW Sydney and Doctoral Candidate at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

Eileen Baldry is Professor of Criminology at UNSW Sydney, Australia.

David Brown is Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney, Australia.

Chris Cunneen is Professor of Criminology, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Melanie Schwartz is Associate Professor and Deputy Dean (Education) at the Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney, Australia.