NCJ Number
78279
Date Published
1980
Length
431 pages
Annotation
Crime and its prevention, the personality of the criminal, the treatment of the criminal, prison reform, and juvenile delinquency are discussed, with primary reference to India.
Abstract
The first major section examines society, the State, the law, and the individual from a sociological perspective. The importance of group life in molding the individual is emphasized. The task of social institutions and the state is viewed as that of providing positive influences that will enable persons to adjust to, reflect, and advance the highest values upon which a culture is based. Effective family and public education, role models, and laws are presented as some of the vehicles for molding the individual. Criminals are portrayed as defectives who in significant ways have not incorporated into their attitudes and behavior normative socioeconomic values. Criminal behavior is said to be the combined result of destructive inherited, environmental, social, and economic factors. The major section on the 'problem of crime' treats the causes and remedies for crime, war crimes and their prevention, the rationale and method for punishment, and India's prison system and prison reform. The individualization of sanctions for offenders is emphasized, under the assumptions that each personality is a product of unique influences and that rehabilitation can be effected by countering particular criminalizing influences. The concluding section on juvenile delinquency examines its causes, treatment, and prevention; juvenile legislation, courts, and probation; and children's aid societies, homes, and certified schools. Appended is a study of a number of criminal cases, so as to trace the factors causing each criminal pattern. A selected bibliography contains over 300 listings, and an index is provided.