Citation

Finestone H. Am. J. Sociol. 1967; 72(6): 575-588.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1967, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/224396

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Contrasts among the various approaches to the rehabilitation of criminal offenders can be related to differing assumptions about the nature of criminality. One such conception regard criminal behavior as part of the offender's life career and directs attention to the nature of the offender's situation and to the kinds of contingencies which may arise. This perspective is applied by the present study to the post-prison experience of a group of Italian and Polish property offenders. A comparison of Italian and Polish ethnic communities as post-release situations is made. The distinctive problems each is most likely to generate within the experience of offenders are identified, and types of the processes of reformation and recidivism are constructed.