Community penalties, also known as community sentences, alternative sentencing, or noncustodial sentences, is used as a general term for criminal justice—for all the different methods, other than the typical custodial sentence, that a court of law can use to punish an offender who has been convicted of an offense. A custodial sentence is characterized by, among other things, serving a prison term. Community penalties are based on the theory of retributive justice, which is based on the idea of retaliation, considered to be a valuable punishment method in itself.

Traditionally, retributive justice was used, among other reasons, to provide a means of deterrence to offenders as well as to potential offenders. Before the advent of the modern justice system, which involves the police, a sentence of ...