Work for the benefit of the community as a criminal sanction in Spain

Work for the benefit of the community as a criminal sanction was first introduced into Spanish legislation by the 1995 criminal code. However, orders have not been implemented as expected and the gap between the written law and the law in action has been considerable. Regulation and implementation of orders pose serious problems, which reflect more general trends of criminal policy and practice in Spain. After briefly describing the regulation and implementation of work for the benefit of the community orders, this article focuses on the main problems they present and discusses them in the context of wider policy issues.