Community courts bring the justice process from downtown to neighborhood-based panels.
The structure of community courts varies in each locality, but in every instance, they exist to mete out sanctions appropriate to the crime and to the community. They primarily focus on rehabilitating young lawbreakers while simultaneously repairing harm done to the community or victim. Offenders are, in most of these courts, required to admit their guilt before entering the community court, thereby avoiding the traditional court system. This allows the panel of neighborhood residents to openly discuss what led the offender to commit their crime and appropriately determine a sanction. No government service is more tradition-bound than criminal justice.