Community, Crime and Punishment in West Belfast

Northern Ireland is the only U.K. region in which there is the operation of an informal criminal justice system, based on the power of paramilitary organisations and in opposition to the statutory system. In particular, the I.R.A. partly in response to community demands and partly to realise a dual power strategy, punish those whom they regard as offenders by a variety of means. This process creates a set of contradictions for the formal criminal justice system, for the communities in which it occurs and for the paramilitaries. The article explores these issues via a case study of a community project in West Belfast designed to protect young people, who hijacked cars, from both the paramilitary and formal systems of criminal justice.