The Dynamics of Service User Participation and Compliance in Community Justice Settings

This article draws on insights from within and beyond the parameters of criminal justice research, and from key models of community justice supervision, to illuminate the dynamics of service user participation and compliance in community justice settings. In doing so, the article provides a multifaceted analysis of how service user participation in setting the goals of supervision intersects with factors that could engender compliance. It identifies these factors as: service user agency; positive self-identity; empowerment; self-efficacy; and responsive services. Several complexities vitiate service user participation. The article proposes the co-production of compliance as an antidote that can neutralise the complexities.