This study challenges the conventional approach to the appropriate indicators of individual success in community courts (CCs) by exploring the different meanings that CC professionals ascribe to the term “success.” CCs conduct a non-adversarial process in which team members collaborate to provide a comprehensive rehabilitative intervention for recidivist participants. We conducted fifty-three in-depth interviews with CC personnel between 2016 and 2020. According to the interviewees, standard evaluation measures such as program completion, reduced recidivism, and systemic reduction of incarceration are necessary for evaluating these courts. Yet individual success is relative, subjective, multidimensional, and must be understood as a continuum. Therefore, it should also be measured by looking at significant processes of change that participants have undergone in various aspects of their lives. Study findings can be translated into measurable well-being indicators, moving the “what works” discourse forward to include more nuanced and diverse manifestations of success in studies evaluating specialized courts.

本研究通过探索社区法院 (CC) 专业人士对“成功”一词的不同含义，对社区法院 (CC) 中个人成功的适当指标的传统方法提出了挑战。CC 实施非对抗性流程，团队成员协作为累犯参与者提供全面的康复干预。2016年至2020年间，我们对CC人员进行了53次深度访谈。受访者表示，评估这些法院需要采用项目完成情况、减少累犯、系统性减少监禁等标准评估措施。然而，个人的成功是相对的、主观的、多维的，并且必须被理解为一个连续体。因此，还应该通过观​​察参与者在生活的各个方面经历的重大变化过程来衡量。研究结果可以转化为可衡量的福祉指标，推动“什么有效”的讨论向前发展，在评估专门法院的研究中纳入更细致、更多样化的成功表现。