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were also common to the deliberations of the English authorities when contemplating
communityservice in that jurisdiction ten years earlier.
The chapter then moves on to examine the inception of the debate on the introduction of
the community service as a new sentencing tool for sentencers, beginning with the
publication of the White Paper in 1982. Thereafter a critical debate was conducted in the
Oireachtas on the measure leading to the birth of the sanction under the legislation of
1983. The measure having been established in 1983, a number of critical questions
presentedabout the operation of the communityservice order over the ensuing years.
The necessity to identify the target group of offenders for the new penalty requires
particular attention to disclose whether the categorygiven communityservice bythe courts
approximates to the same group intended to receive it by policy makers. A number of
contemporarystudies are used to explore the accuracyof this sentencingexercise, while the
earlier identification of suitable offenders and offences for community service are
compared. The chapter moves on to explore specific features of the community service
order in Ireland as it operates in the District Court and the higher criminal courts with
particular focus upon sentencing modalities of the different criminal courts and how the
community service order is operated within these modalities. The relationship of
community service to other penalties will be examined to ascertain whether the penalty is
used in a manner consistent with its intended purpose, and if not, what dynamic features
are operating in the sentencingfieldto deflect the penaltyfromits intendedpath.
PART 1
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: A COLONIAL LEGACY
In Chapters 1 and 2 the emergence of the community service order as a modern penal
sanction was discussed, particularly community service as introduced in the neighbouring
jurisdiction of England and Wales in 1972 following the Wootton Report of 1970. The
emergence and spread of community service as an alternative to imprisonment in other
common law countries and civil jurisdictions (Menzies 1986, Vass and Menzies 1989,
Leibrich 1985) was coterminous with the promotion of community service and other
forms of non-custodial measures by the Council of Europe (Council of Europe 1976,
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