NCJ Number
76823
Journal
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY PROCEEDINGS Volume: 118 Issue: 3 Dated: (June 7, 1974) Pages: 254-259
Date Published
1974
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Since the treatment model in corrections, popular in Western Europe after World War II, has not decreased crime, sanctions which do not involve deprivation of liberty should be explored, according to this French expert.
Abstract
Following World War II, European countries generally initiated penal reforms. For example, France substituted education instead of punishment for treating juvenile delinquents. Italy proclaimed that punishment should have as its aim the social readaptation of the offender. However, new forms of criminality have surfaced, needing new control strategies. These new forms include economic crimes, pollution, and drug abuse. The new strategies for dealing with them include open institutions, more and more approximating those of free labor, the maintenance and extension of relations with the outside world, and group therapy and counseling. Yet rates of recidivism stay high and are often practically the same whether the offenders have been submitted to a modern treatment or have served their time under old conditions. As a consequence, some reforms have been abandoned; such as preventive detention of multirecidivists and corrective training. The solution may lie in viewing the prison as only the end stage of reaction to crime. Many crimes and kinds of antisocial conduct can be handled by other sanctions. For example, Great Britain is now studying measures applied in Eastern Europe, where correctional labor is organized without deprivation of liberty. Thus, European penology is again attracted to bold experiments, despite the present challenge of crime. Nine footnotes are included. For related articles, see NCJ 76819.