Literature Review - Essay Example

The question however becomes whether community service is truly punitive, and if so, whether it really transforms a society (Corporation for National and Community Service 45). Some have posited in the affirmative, claiming that the community is a secondary victim that does not suffer a direct grievance from the crime. Still, a meaningful distinction between its punitive element, its voluntary element and restitution can help maintain the reparative purpose of the community service and prisons (Corporation for National and Community Service 67). To some, if the community service is applied to repair the damages done to a community, the threat of being applied as punishment measure is greatly reduced (University of Michigan 22). With this argument, the orders for community service have to spell out the extent and nature of the damage inflicted to a community. Some researchers are of the opinion that community service can be a reparative sanction connecting the nature of the service to the offender’s offence. Its outcome can be positive evoking responsibility from the part of the offender for his actions (University of Michigan 45). ...
some observers who view that the emphasis of community service should not be defined on from the perspective of being punitive or rehabilitative, rather, it should be defined from the angle of accountability. This way, its definition incorporates the virtue of volunteering (Corporation for National and Community Service 88). This school of thought has seemed to rely on the angle that community service can be used in schools for the purposes of service learning. This in actuality seems to deviate from the angle that the reparative or punitive element of community service does not hold (University of Michigan 54). According to the National and Community Service, the purpose of introducing community service was based on the premise that it would in actual sense enable the students to learn from their volunteering efforts, thus demonstrate academic gains existed from the program (Corporation for National and Community Service 88). Community service when applied from this viewpoint, provides learners with the critical ability to apply academic learning to actual human needs and to transform the knowledge gained into real life situations. Community service therefore offers the participants with the necessary motivation an opportunity to learn and to integrate the knowledge gained in real life situations. Researchers have made efforts to measure the benefits accrued from community service, including the increased trust from the community as well as the increased social and political participation. Indeed a research by National Community Service found that community service had potential health effects, particularly if interpreted from the angle of volunteerism. These researchers have attempted to establish a strong relationship between health and voluntary community service, Read More