LABOR MARKET AND PENAL SANCTION: THOUGHTS ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Author(s): Georg Rusche and Gerda

Dinwiddie Source: Crime and Social Justice, No. 10 (fall-winter 1978), pp. 2-8 Published by: Social Justice/Global Options Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29766043 . Accessed: 06/09/2013 09:51
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LABOR MARKET AND PENAL SANCTION: THOUGHTS ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Georg Rusche* Translated by Gerda Dinwiddie
Editors9 In troduc tion The following English translation of Georg Rusche's "Arbeitsmarkt und Strafvollzug" (1933) appears in print for thefirst time.Orginally submitted as a research proposal to the Frankfurt Institute of Social Research in 1931, Rusche's article laid the foundation for the book, Punish? ment and Social Structure, which he later co-authored with Otto Kirchheimer. First published in 1939 by Columbia University Press, the book was re-issued in 1968 byRussell and Russell Company. Punishment and Social Structure continues to be neglected by American criminologists. Barnes and Teeters (New Horizons in Criminology, Prentice-Hall, 1943) and Edwin Sutherland (Principles of Criminology, 4th Edition, 1941) are the only two "older" textbooks that acknowl? edge its existence. While Sutherland merely listed the work as suggested reading, Barnes and Teeters at least recognized the importance of the book: "In a stimulating and provoca? tive work on the subject, Rusche and Kirchheimer have given us a clear idea of how changing social and economic systems fundamentally altered the ways of thinking and The only American criminologist to employ the thesis developed in Punishment and Social Structure was Thorsten
studied law, philosophy, economics and Georg Rusche (1900-?) the social sciences in Paris, London and at several German universi? in 1924. He pursued his ties, graduating from Cologne University studies at that same university and completed his thesis on economic followed und theory in 1929, by the writing of "Arbeitsmarkt in 1931 in 1933). After Hitler came to Strafvollzug" (published * acting in relation to crime and punishment.99

Sellin in Pioneering in Penology (1944) and in his most recent work, Slavery and the Penal System (1976). (See the review essay of Sellings writings by Greg Shank in this issue of the journal) Sellin was also familiar with Rusche's "Arbeitsmarkt und Strafvollzug" (see Sellin's Research Memorandum on Crime in the Depression, Social Science Research Council, Bulletin 27, 1937). In a review essay of Punishment and Social Structure in Crime and Social Justice 9 (Spring-Summer 1978), Dario Melossi points out how Rusche's writings in Chapters II through VIII, which carefully follow the hypothesis laid down in "Arbeitsmarkt und Strafvollzug," were re-worked by Otto Kirchheimer. Rusche was less than enthusiastic about what had been done to his portion of the book. For this reason, Crime and Social Justice made the decision to print an English translation of how Rusche originally viewed his plan of research. This English translation is almost a faithful reproduc? tion from the original German. We have, however, modern? ized the language and idioms without fundamentally altering the original meaning. It is apparent thatRusche was embarking on a radically new kind of analysis and, there?
fore, times his and vocabulary and tentative. unclear categories of analysis are some?

I.

left Germany and experienced power, Rusche years of difficult exile from Paris to London, then to Palestine, and back to London. was in a camp in Great Britain, Rusche Interned later released and was on his way to Canada when his ship was torpedoed. He was returned to London where he remained, at least until March 1941. There is no further information on Georg Rusche. ** is a graduate Gerda Dinwiddie student the University of California, Berkeley. in German literature

at

The study of crime and crime control is a fruitfulfield for sociological research. We are dealing with phenomena here which are determined to a large extent by social forces. Consequently, on the one hand, they practically compel an explanation derived from social relationships; on the other hand, they lend themselves especially well to an illumination of these relationships. The reason for this is that mystification and cover-up, which make the investiga? tion of other social interconnections so very difficult, are to a great extent forced aside by the brutality of these phenomena and by conflicts which must necessarily be fought in the open.

2 /Crimeand Social Justice

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use of Surprisingly, research has made only minimal the possibilities offered here. Sociological considerations have been included extensively in the examination of criminological problems. However, they have not been done justice in any way. For, even if the relationship between
socioeconomic crime control phenomena are obvious and to the problems sociologists, of crime and there is still a

not discuss whether the goal of punishment is retribution, deterrence or reform of the criminal. One thing, though, is certain: no society wants its penal system to incite the
commission of crimes. In other

be constituted in such a way that those people who appear to be criminally inclined or inclined to commit acts that are
undesirable

words,

punishment

has

to

long way to go from the naive recognition of this fact to making use of it in a systematic and scientific fashion. This failure is explained by the fact that, in general, the
researchers who devote themselves to

so by the prospect of being discovered and punished. On the contrary, it is even hoped that the prospect of punish? ment will deter ifnot all members of this class, then at least
a substantial

to the society,

are

at least not

encouraged

to do

problems are not familiar with the fundamental principles of the social sciences, but approach them more from the outside. They are usually jurists or doctors. When they are employ sociological categories in their work, they
derived from naive

criminological

Indeed, the anticipation of future sufferingand painful reprisal, which by far exceed the possible pleasurable gain,
should be an effective counterbalance teaches of those us for person. committed Now experience by members that most who rational any are crimes burdened

part.

are scientifically founded, they rely exclusively on social psychology. recent criminology, partially Certainly the more stimulated by psychoanalysis, has produced valuable causes of crime and insights about the individual and social about the sociopsychological functions of punishment. But these studies lack a foundation in the basic principles of are neither connected to sociological knowledge. They
economic

experience

or, at best,

if these

categories

strata

are

by strong social pressures and who are relatively disadvan taged in satisfying their needs when compared to other
classes.

productive, must be constituted in such a way that the classes which are most criminally inclined prefer to abstain from the forbidden acts than become victims of criminal Perhaps, one could argue that such a proposition does not sufficiently consider the impact of the sense of honor and fear of disgrace associated with punishment. Indeed, the solidity of the social structure does in no way depend are supposed to guarantee the continuation of society. The great majority of people has to be psychically willing to accommodate to the existing society, to regard which
the to state as their experience, and identification there state, the law are classes break down. as their law. But, this according adjustment for whom only on the strength of external measures of coercion punishment.

Therefore,

penal

sanction,

if it is not

to be counter?

they imply a fixed social structure which does not exist in reality, and they unconsciously characterize the social
system process. as eternal and unchanging rather than as a historical

theory,

nor

are

they historically

oriented.

Rather,

economic more

The social function of crime and criminal justice can be clarified far beyond previous research, if simple axioms of
or theory less static are used and one does not and ahistorical system presuppose of class relations. a

In this paper, some basic ideas for research along these lines will be proposed and discussed. Although highly complex and somewhat independent circumstances influence the field of criminology7, especially biological and psychological aspects, nevertheless economic theory and historical observation can clarify many on questions. The dependency of crime and crime control
economic and historical conditions does not, do For provide are a total and

are without

Criminality certainly occurs, throughout all social classes. But disregarding persons forwhom social inhibitions
effect, or a few crimes which are not affected

determine the object of our investigation and by themselves

limited incomplete in several ways. example,

explanation.

These

forces

however, not alone

by social position, such as slander or political and related offenses or isolated cases of sensational trials, then it becomes clear that the criminal law and the daily work of the criminal courts are directed almost exclusively against those people whose class background, poverty, neglected is rarely maintained anymore today that the individual alone is responsible for his crime. On the other hand, not heaviest social pressure. Thus, the range of possibilities extends from law-abiding people in a wretched environment to confirmed criminals in a bourgeois milieu. Indeed, the ment overly high in an individual case. At any rate, an extremely high capacity for resistance is expected of the
lower power of resistance can be abnormally low or the induce? everybody necessarily becomes a criminal even under the education, or demoralization drove them to crime. It

who

the penal system and the ritual of criminal procedure are shaped by various forces, including religious and sexual phenomena. Similarly, our method of investigation is not sufficient to explain the specific fate of a single individual
becomes a criminal and his particular punishment.

But, within these limits, certain mechanisms can be discovered by economic-historical analysis with sufficient
accuracy. II.

It can be said without contradiction that crimes are acts which are forbidden in society. Debates about the meaning of punishment will not be addressed here. I shall

their livelihood by long, severewinters, inflation and crises, and the spiritually and physically weakest are thrown into the path of crime. If penal sanctions are supposed to deter
these strata from crime than in an effective manner, appear even worse the strata's present must they conditions. living

strata,

of whom

large

masses

are

regularly

deprived

of

Fall-Winter 1978/ 3

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One can also formulate this proposition as follows: all efforts to reform the punishment of criminals are inevitably limited by the situation of the lowest socially significant proletarian class which society wants to deter from criminal acts. All reform efforts, however humanitarian and well are meaning, which attempt to go beyond this restriction condemned to utopianism. If penal reforms should be demanded by public opinion and carried out, the reforms would have to be undermined by amore subtle deterioration of prison conditions. For, a genuine improvement in the conditions of imprisonment beyond this limit would no longer deter such large groups of people, and, as a conse? quence, the purpose of punishment would be destroyed. George Bernard Shaw once said: When we get down to the poorest and most oppressed of our population we find the conditions of their life so wretched that itwould be impossible to conduct a prison humanely without making the lot of the criminalmore eligible than that of many free citizens. If the prison does not underbid the slum in human misery, the slum will empty and the prison will fill.l III. The preceding analysis, though abstract and formal, has been stated often enough.2 Naturally, it should not be assumed that this proposition will be exactly reproduced in society in the manner in which it has been expressed here. It is only a principle of investigation, a guide to approach the subject matter. We will then find that there are very inter? peculiar and unpredictable events, often strangely twined and quite different in conception and execution, which determine the course of real life. If we want to make concrete the proposition that effective penal sanctions must deter the lower social classes which are the most criminally inclined, we must clarify what economic categories determine the fate of these classes. It is not at first easy to realize that these classes have no other goods at their disposal but their ability to sell

their labor power and that, therefore, the labor market is the determining category. The situation of the working class is different in an economy in which a large reserve army of starving proletariat follows the employers and drives the wage for each job opportunity offered down to a
minimum, than

as for example where free land is available and therefore nobody is forced to earn a living through dependent labor, and the employers compete for the few available workers and drive wages up. Naturally, the scarcity or surplus of workers does not unequivocally determine the nature of the labor market. Political interventions can correct the fluctuation of supply and demand. When there is a lack of workers, for instance, the employers can try to compensate for the lack of eco? nomic incentives by introducing slavery or other forms of forced labor, or by setting maximum wages or taking similar measures pertaining to labor law. When there is a surplus of workers, the unions can protect wages from falling by withholding the supply of labor, or the state can do so through sociopolitical measures, particularly payment of aid to the unemployed. Depending on which of these situations prevails, the criminal justice apparatus will have tomeet different tasks. Unemployed masses, who tend to commit crimes of desperation because of hunger and deprivation, will only be stopped from doing so through cruel penalties. The most effective penal policy seems to be severe corporal punish? ment, if not ruthless extermination. In China, where there is a huge reserve army of wretched and starvingproletariat which pours into the cities and is forced to sell its labor for any price (if it can find work at all), large gangs of merce? naries are always fightingone another. Under these condi? tions, the mere fact of being given food would make prison
an

in an economy

in which

workers

are

scarce,

only exist where European influence has asserted itself,and they are an indescribable cruelty. "Every socially thinking person who comes to China," writes Agnes Smedley in a "receives an extremely sad, report, "Prisons in*China^ must see how lowly an he when depressing impression ordinary human lifeweighs. This disregard becomes particu? larly clear when one realizes that criminals of any kind, who are caught here, are being shot, hanged or beheaded, and that these executions arouse hardly more than fleeting
notice."

enticement,

not

a deterrent.

Prison

sentences,

therefore,

In a society inwhich workers are scarce, penal sanctions have a completely different function. They do not have to stop hungry masses from satisfying elementary needs. If everybody who wants to work can findwork, if the lowest social class consists of unskilled workers and not of wretched unemployed workers, then punishment is required to make the unwilling work, and to teach other criminals that they have to content themselves with the income of an honest
worker. Even more: when workers are scarce,

A factory within a prison 4 /Crimeand Social Justice

be high. But then itwill be profitable to lock up criminals and let themwork for food only, since the costs of guarding and enforcement will still be less than than the normal wage. Therefore, there is in all societies in which workers

the wages

will

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an* scarce

the extermination of the criminal. Where the criminals labor is valuable, exploitation is preferred to capital punish? ment, and forced labor is the corresponding mode of
punishment. IV.

tendency

away

from

corporal

punishment

and

IKCnRPUKATCD This economic theory of punishment which has been developed here in a broad outline seems to me to be the key to understanding the criminal law. It would be quite wrong, however, to apply it to the present in exactly the Important peculiarities in the contemporary criminal law cannot be explained without a historical framework .... That our criminal law exists in its present-day form is to a great extent comprehensible only through an appreciation of its origins and development. Its present form is, so to speak, a projection of the past. In spite of fluctuations in the political economy, the criminal law has not become insignificant and, though adjusted to a great extent to present-day tasks, it exerts far-reachingeffects.This cannot be comprehended if one tries to understand the penal system only from the viewpoint of today. Without a historical overview, it is impossible to rationally explain an incomprehensible state of affairs. That means, however, that our economic theory has to be supplemented by a historical analysis without which the present system of crime control is incomprehensible. This work has not been done so far by legal historians. The history of law, as it is practiced at the moment, is far too much a brand of positivist jurisprudence to be capable of analyzing it socio historically. The history of the penal system ismore than a history of the alleged independent development of legal "institu? tions." It is the history of the relations of the "two nations," as Disraeli called them, that constitute a people?the rich and the poor. The unproductive and conventional notions which legal historians usually hang onto hinder more often than help a truly scientific explanation. And when jurists rise above the juristic horizon, they often treat their object of interest in the manner of a meticulous collector of curiosities, without any criteria for the selection of the significant,because they do not question the legitimacy of traditional archives. But historians record things which appear important and remarkable to them, while we, however, are interested in day-to-day events. It is the same with reports about sensational legal cases which fill all the newspapers but tell us little about the actual criminality of
the masses. same way as it has been presented here.

Cloth label for Hamilton Mfg. Co., Lowell, Mass., ca. 1860 theory and at the same time scathing about those centuries which do not fit into it?a procedure which does not always promote the understanding of facts. Therefore, the task has been to study the historical relationship between criminal law and economics, the history of class struggle, and to utilize these interrelation? ships to analyze the present prison system. At this point, only a short overview of the results of this research can be given, as much as is necessary to explain the logic of this
essay ....

V.

Often, legal historians are guided not by an unprejudiced analysis of social laws, but by an evolutionary conception of the development of legal institutions: from barbaric cruelty to the humanitarianism of the relatively perfect legal system which we supposedly enjoy today. They overlook that we are dealing with a very long, now halting, now regressive movement. Accordingly, they are often rather generous with praise for the eras which confirm their

In the history of punishment, three epochs succeed one another. They are characterized by the prevalence of quite differentmethods of punishment: penance and monetary7 fines are practically the only form of punishment in the early Middle Ages; they are replaced in the lateMiddle Ages sen? by a system of cruel corporal punishment and death tences, which in turnmake way for prison sentences in the 17th century. If one compares these phases in the history of penology with changes in social history, one finds
surprising interconnections.

The early medieval system of fines and penance corre Fall-Winter 1978/ 5

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sponded to the needs of a thinly populated, peasant econ? omy. The possibility of settling on free land hindered any strong social pressure on the lower classes and led to a relatively even distribution of society's wealth. Thus, there were few crimes against property, for a farmer would hardly take things from his neighbor which he could produce himself at amuch lesser cost inpsychic expenditure. What led to crimes were rather the primitive stirringsof sexuality and hatred. A real deterrent at this time was the fear of private revenge by the injured party. In order to prevent this situation from degenerating into blood feuds and anarchy, society strove for accommodation. Crime was regarded as a form of war and the goal of legislators was the reconciliation of the enemies by recognized principles rather than crime control as we know it today. In the later Middle Ages, the situation changed com? pletely. If, until then, as Schmoller says, "people were more in demand than property,"4 now there is a growth in population, the land is settled and a crowding of the available living space occurs. A separation of classes into rich and poor begins; property less workers drive down wages; and, for the first time, a quasi-capitalistic mode of production emerges; armies of beggars, social unrest and revolts, culminating in the peasant wars are the result. The nature of criminality is completely changed: a rapid increase in property crimes occurs and hordes of beggars, thieves and robbers flourish. As a result, the sphere of action of criminal justice had to be completely altered. If in theMiddle Ages fineswere preferred over corporal punish? ment, now the traditional system of monetary fines had outlived its usefulness because these criminals had no possessions with which they could pay. Gradually, tradi? tional punitive methods were replaced by whippings, mutilation and killing, at first still redeemable through money, later the universal means of punishment of and protection against the criminality of the gathering crowds of have-nots. The most gruesome imagination is hardly sufficient to visualize the justice of that time, which soon plunged vagabonds into destruction side by side with bandits and murderers and ended with the extermination of the jobless proletariat. Around 1600, the conditions of the labormarket again changed fundamentally. The supply of labor became scarcer as a result of the expansion of trade and new markets, the influx of precious metals from the New World, and wars and plagues, especially the Thirty Years' War and itsdecima? tion of the population. A period of noticeable shortage of workers occurred; workers' wages rose and the standard of living of the lowest class improved considerably. People became valuable and workers thought twice before putting their labor power at anybody's disposal. As the gains of the contractors receded and the "economy" declined, force replaced economic incentive. The whole social structure is determined by this effort and, as a consequence of it, the system of mercantilism emerges. From this perspective, it is easy to interpret the well-known fact that until then it had been easy to collect soldiers in sufficient numbers simply through the "propaganda drum," for jobless proletarians 6 /Crimeand Social Justice

Working in a U.S. prison streamed together in crowds wherever they saw a possibility for continuing their existence. But now they had to be enlisted with force and trickery because they could find more favorable conditions outside the military. In this situation of constant scarcity of workers, where everybody's labor is valuable, it would be an economically "senseless" cruelty to keep destroying criminals. Confinement to prison takes over the role of corporal punishment and death there used to be gallows, now prisons stand. This humani? tarianism was absolutely profitable: "What good is a thief, who has been hanged because of 50 Gulden, either for himself or for the one he stole it from,when he can earn four times that amount in one year in a workhouse?" asks a distinguished labor economist of that time, J.J.Becher.5 This "humanitarian" system of punishment lost its utility when the Industrial Revolution, the replacement of the worker by themachine at the turn of the 18th century, removed the scarcity of workers, and the industrial reserve army came into existence. The lower classes sank into misery, underbid each other on the labor market, and compulsory measures lost their meaning. Prisons were no longer profitable. When wages were high, they had brought high gains; but when workers voluntarily offered their labor for a minimum existence, itwas no longerworth it to come up with the cost for confinement and supervision. The proceeds of prisoners' labor were not even sufficient for the upkeep of the building and the maintenance of the guards and prisoners. The prison failed in two ways: again, as in the Middle Ages, the criminality of the pauperized masses rose and the penitentiary no longer terrorized them. Some advocated the return to medieval methods of punishment. Though itwas demanded loud enough, it did not materialize because hard-earned humanitarian ideals hindered it and political wisdom kept the ruling class from overstraining an already revolutionary situation with such open provocation. Penal punishment remained a leftover from a previous and quite different epoch, but adjusted by necessity to changing needs. Institutions of forced labor, penitentiaries became places of pure torture, suitable to deter even the most wretched. Prisoners were insufficiently clothed and were
sentences, "humanitarianism" replaces cruelty; wherever

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cramped as served purpose again,

together. torture: from one

Work, loads of place

become having stone had to be by

lugged

unprofitable, without they After were would most the war, when was

VI. there was chronic

to another were not

had to work waterpumps which let the water flow back

or treadmills of beatings. which used

the prisoners: for any

a breakdown of the labor market in the countries which

affected in an of need avoided

unemployment,

The discipline of this routine was reen forced by the deter?

rent effect

purpose.

Wages and the standard of livingdid not sink as low as they

have dropped they satisfying did out not economy. unregulated the production process most immediate needs to become criminals. wen I those who of wen1 and, assured

by unemployment

assistance.

The

reform. apparent arouse fear even

introduction of solitary confinement was only an

It too was a in the hungry which device could punitive and act as a deterrent for

their

people who did not know how to stay alive. For there is hardly a greater torment than the feeling of total depend? ency and helplessness, being cut off from all stimulations and distractions, which is induced by solitary confinement. Only in form did the idea of deterrence differ from the corporal punishments of the Middle Ages, but the con?
science of the reformers could could confinement they the penitentiaries. because see, not In peace. solitary torture, but the reform of be at

penal system was saved from the task, which

perform several times

Consequently,

generally, the

it had to
criminals

prison would not be intimidating, given the regular supply of food. Disregarding the short period of inflation, criminality did not rise above its prewar level; it
even showed until

for whom

in its history

, of containing

not

result, penal reformswhich began even before the war did

at first have the to be given up, but wen1 tinued, given favorable political climate partially .... con?

recently

declining

tendency.

As

In America, punishment developed differently than in

there was a greater demand for workers

Europe

than during mercantilism. The

created a vacuum

free land and

industrial
which

immigration could not fill. Everybody who was the least bit useful could find work, wages were high, possibilities of upward mobility were not closed to any capable person. The lowest socially important class were the unskilled,
recent assistance was

development

in the

This effort,which was carried out in the last few years with considerable public participation, shall not be discussed at this point. As far as the results can be estimated, it is not
to abandon the necessary we owe so many evidently simple correct heuristic results. maxim to which

labor market

and weak, and those unable to work, private philanthropy

enough. The number take was of crimes was low and As the form of mercan? could task this to into account. transform of under

or the native immigrants was for the unemployed

colored not

workers.

Public the sick

moment

In Germany, the class which is the most criminally endangered is the unemployed on relief, particularly young singles who keep house on their relief alone and at the
receive about seven to

needed.

For

do who people the effectiveness mined by

their living needs. Besides this class, there exists a group of

not receive assistance, humane of our very created welfare for to a great extent laws is under? realization. A

eight

Mark

per week

lor all

punishment whose

tilism, prisons became very profitable places of production

main criminals i.e., able into useful members society, were reformers conditional through industrious to make

education workers.

Given

part of the welfare law inGermany demands a high degree of a personal sense of responsibility from the officials.
that the administration records, establishing of authority new burden written , the for and back is cutting personnel, for the centralization asking case means of aid in eaeli a burden which can

the apparatus

for their

large

Consequently, sentencing,

surprising gains?education,
indeterminate

learning of skills, hygiene,

pardon, probation,

parole, separate treatment of juvenile delinquents and first offenders all had their starting point here. Also, scientific organizations investigated the individual and social causes of crime and methods of crime control throughwelfare and
prevention.

avoided by a simple denial of aid to the petitioner. Any way, considering the extremely limited budget of public welfare,
the officials refuse are to aid a to make decision and negative encouraged in case of doubt. Therefore, strong motives decision in any case.

justification the functionaries,

a be

exist

for an unfavorable

when the pressure of the unemployed which had weighed on the labor market since the Industrial Revolution slowly disappeared, when social welfare lessened themisery of the
helpless and, subsided, when unemployment as a permanent phenomenon went

Only

when

the situation

improved

somewhat

in

Europe,

The class of the unaided supplies the beggars, vagabonds, peddlers, prostitutes, pimps and those who lower the wages
for occasional work

without

asylums,

when

of any have they

kind ?guests "sleeping

of

the hostels

and

money,"

otherwise

ingly followed, more perhaps in theory than in praxis. The development, for example, of effective aid for released prisoners in the period before the war was motivated by the scarcity of agricultural labor and employers' willingness to accept any labor force, provided that they contented
themselves with urgent demand low wages. Thus, sufficiently for vagabonds and criminals, there as was an well as

considerably,

the rate therefore, was the American

of criminality

down hesitat?

shelter, desperately waiting rooms and hallway s?

According to our heuristic

awaiting
maxim,

the morning
should assume

in

example

slowly

and

we

that in the interest of deterring these classes, punishment must mean a hell which theywould not voluntarily exchange for their livingconditions. But until now, the satisfaction of
have needs of food and warmth elementary been the prisoners too much. denied receive nourishment," they "appropriate the does not seem to On the contrary, which perhaps

would

foreigners.

even compare favorably with the nutrition of the unemployed (the price of food in the prisons is about .70 Fall-Winter 1978/ 7

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Reichsmark per day). The degradation, themeaninglessness of penal labor, the prison discipline with its enforced order, the exclusion of all normal sexual activity, as well as the hostility of the overworked guards?in short, the deprivation
of

FOOTNOTES
to Sidney and Beatrice Webb, 1. See the Forward Under Local Government, London, 1922, p. xL English Prisons

ing to the scandalous trials of the last few years, a similar state of affairs must be assumed for education in juvenile reformatories. Naturally, the forces which bring about this
state of affairs There "humane"

freedom?appears

to be

effective

enough

so far. Accord?

in is found in Kriegsmann, Einfuhrung 2. The most concise example to Penology), die Gef?ngniskunde 1912, Heidelberg, (Introduction is being 'The care must not go so far, that the prisoner p. 175: el dorado of the poorest classes of spoiled, that the prison becomes the population."

the proposition expressed here: the dramatic breakdown of today, the high level of unemployment is not absorbed by
in crime, system. an all Consequently, unimaginable humanitarian there is an of the unimaginable repression, overcrowding the brutality reforms, punishment in America. In the United States

anything an is, however,

are

else

than

conscious

intent.

extraordinary

confirmation

of

3. Frankfurter

Zeitung,

September

15, 1930. (Principles of

4. Grundriss der Allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre General Economy), Volume II, Leipzig, 1901, p. 513.

the welfare rise breakdown

of

of the prisons, hunger, filth, joblessness, hopelessness and despair, leading to these penitentiary revolts, these out? breaks ofmadness, which fora time shocked world opinion.7
not So far, the treatment in Germany, of prisoners though as humane as some not as is nevertheless assume, people as in America. our humanitarianism is harsh But hardly

Von den eigentlichen 5. Johann Joachim Becher, Politischer Discurs: dess Auff- und Ahnehmens der Stadt, Lander und Repub? Ursachen liken Causes Of the Actual of the Rise and (Political Discourse: Fall of Cities, Countries and Republics), Frankfurt, 1688, p. 245. released prisoners should not be driven into joining these but even then enough of them classes, but are to receive welfare; wind up among these groups: those who do not know their rights or those who do not know how to defend them in a suitable manner, cannot of previously committed the police because register with crimes, namely runaways from juvenile reformatories. 6. The "Zuchthausrevolten my essay, Compare or Social Revolts Politics"), ("Penitentiary June 1, 1930, No. 403. 7. oder Sozialpolitik" Frankfurter Zeitung,

effective enough to lift punishment out of the sphere of that fatal dependency on which we based our theoretical

premise.

8 /Crimeand Social Justice

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