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The Radicals and the Rehabilitative Ideal, 1890‐1930
Author(s) -
JENKINS PHILIP
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1982.tb00466.x
Subject(s) - penology , materialism , positivism , value (mathematics) , ideal (ethics) , determinism , epistemology , socialism , sociology , darwinism , criminology , philosophy , positive economics , political science , law , politics , prison , economics , communism , machine learning , computer science
This article studies radical and socialist reactions to rehabilitative or discretionary penology in the early twentieth century. Far from foreshadowing the ideas of modern radical criminology, early leftists tended to support the rehabilitative idea very strongly, despite the logical contradictions this presented. I attempt to explain the naivete of early radicals in accepting the claims of the new penology at face value. In particular, an explanation is sought in the common reliance of both socialism and positivism on Darwinian ideas and a shared belief in materialism and determinism.