Challenges of criminal justice policy in applying community service orders

With the enactment of the Islamic Penal Code (May 1, 2013), a number of community-based punishments entered the Iranian legal literature under the title of alternatives to imprisonment. In this regard, the study of possible challenges in the application of new criminal institutions is one of the important topics in criminal science, which will indicate the effectiveness of these institutions The authors of the article by focusing on the experience of key actors in issuing and enforcing community service orders, have attempted to identify such challenges at the judicial level through (first) a focus group was formed with the presence of 12 judges and (in the next step) interviews with 13 judges who have had experience in this area. The data gathered from the focus group and interviews indicate multiples judicial challenges in application of community service orders, which can be following into two main categories: "current and continuing punishment criteria inconsistent with the nature of community-based punishments (imprisonment- orientation and statistic-orientation)" and "lack of attention to enforcement infrastructures of community-based punishments. Based on the collected data and by analyzing the above findings, it can be argued that the existence of such challenges has been a subordinate of the wrong approach of criminal policymakers in relation to community-based punishments. This means that the legislature has been enacting policies on community service orders merely for reducing the prison population; And so, have been abandoned the preconditions for the main purpose of this punishment, which is the rehabilitation / reintegration of the convicts.