The Effect of Community Courts on Recidivism: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Roni Factor; Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg; Tali Gal

doi:10.1177/00938548251372899

The Effect of Community Courts on Recidivism: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Roni Factor
, Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg
, Tali Gal

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The study examines the effectiveness of community courts in reducing recidivism, aiming to address methodological limitations of previous research. Using a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching, the research compared 686 program participants (393 completers and 293 noncompleters) referred to community courts with a matched group of 1,797 individuals adjudicated in mainstream magistrate courts for similar offenses. Recidivism was measured using reconviction data at 1, 3, and 5 years following case completion or release from incarceration. Research findings suggest that although participants in the community courts program exhibited fewer reconvictions compared with those adjudicated in mainstream courts, no significant differences were identified between the treatment and control groups. However, upon separating between those who successfully completed the community court program and those who failed to complete it among the treatment group, program completers had significantly lower recidivism rates compared with the matched comparison group.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	198-214
Number of pages	17
Journal	Criminal Justice and Behavior
Volume	53
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548251372899
State	Published - Feb 2026
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Keywords

community courts
problem-solving courts
propensity score matching
recidivism
reconviction
rehabilitation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Pathology and Forensic Medicine
General Psychology
Law

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10.1177/00938548251372899

Cite this

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title = "The Effect of Community Courts on Recidivism: A Quasi-Experimental Study",

abstract = "The study examines the effectiveness of community courts in reducing recidivism, aiming to address methodological limitations of previous research. Using a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching, the research compared 686 program participants (393 completers and 293 noncompleters) referred to community courts with a matched group of 1,797 individuals adjudicated in mainstream magistrate courts for similar offenses. Recidivism was measured using reconviction data at 1, 3, and 5 years following case completion or release from incarceration. Research findings suggest that although participants in the community courts program exhibited fewer reconvictions compared with those adjudicated in mainstream courts, no significant differences were identified between the treatment and control groups. However, upon separating between those who successfully completed the community court program and those who failed to complete it among the treatment group, program completers had significantly lower recidivism rates compared with the matched comparison group.",

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author = "Roni Factor and Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg and Tali Gal",

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The Effect of Community Courts on Recidivism: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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