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were still significantly belowthe predicted reconviction rate at one percent, whereas Lloyd
et al and Raynor and Vanstone found such offenders sentenced to community service at
three percent lower than the predicted rate of reconviction.
The presence of individual predisposing factors towards offending are combined in the
sentencing process to allowthe identification of features of community service which may
have a positive effect upon reconviction. A feature which may be identified from this
admixture of offenders’ individual predispositions and the sentencing process relates to the
offenders internalisation of the sentence as either fair or unfair. While those sentenced to
short terms of imprisonment were found to have fared no worse than those on community
service in terms of employment or relationships, the authors Killias and Ribeaud speculate
that “reductions in recidivism may depend less on improving job and other life
perspectives and more on helping offenders to view their conviction and sentence as a
result of their own behaviour and not of a Judge’s … fault” (Killias and Ribeaud 2000: 53).
As a corollary of this they advise that offenders are more likely to gain insight into the
correspondence between the penaltyand the offendingbehaviour if Judges take the time to
explain why a specific sanction is being applied. By communicating the sentence in this
manner (Duff 2000) the offender is more likelyto internalise the meaningof the sentence.
In this study, the internalisastion of the sentence of communityservice bythe offender was
remarked upon bya number of Judges at all of the jurisdictional levels. One Judge perhaps
best summed up this phenomenon when he said:
“I think what’s trying to be achieved is to give the accused who is nowconvicted an input into his
sentencing. That means it is his choice to do community service. He has to sayhe wants to do it.
That’s a big difference in the rest of the sentencing. It allows him an opportunity, a chance to avoid
the prison sentence, which we all wish he woulddo, but it is within his control andit is within his choice.
It gives him an opportunity to take ownership of his life and avoid the jail sentence and do the
communitya service at the same time”. A4J1DC
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