User Views of Punishment. The dynamics of community-based punishment: insider views from the outside

Abstract

This report explores the experience of community sentences from the perspective of those subject to them and is part of a larger project on ‘User Views of Punishment’ in which we attempt to document what the punished think of punishment: how it works, what it means and how it fits into the larger context of a person’s life. Where a previous SCCJR research report (No.04/2010) explored research findings with a particular focus on the experience and effects of short prison sentences from the perspective of those serving them (Armstrong and Weaver 2010), this research report provides highlights of findings from the analysis with a specific focus on the experience and effects of both prison and community sanctions from the perspective of those currently subject to community sanctions, whose penal experience includes short prison sentences.