Self-Governance and Self-Control as Ideals for Rehabilitation of Offenders

• In Event: Criminal Justice Policy

Abstract

This presentation deals with how a particular penal policy is received and transformed in practice, based on an ethnographic study of behavioural programs in Danish prisons. Denmark has since the 1930’ies had one of the world’s strongest welfarist profiles, with emphasis on rehabilitation and low prison rates. The punitive turn that started internationally in the 80’ies, has reached Denmark, too, but has merged with rehabilitative ideals. The current version of the ideal of rehabilitation shares the neoclassic understanding of crime as basically a problem of lack of discipline, of social control and self-control. Ideas about so-called cognitive deficits of offenders fuel the teaching of self-control and prudency to them, but also imply teaching a certain way of behaving that is intrinsically classed, gendered, and also carry an ethnic bias. The normative instructions of the prisoners do not always resonate with their own perceptions of everyday morality, loyalty and integrity, and we can observe that they deploy various strategies in order to resist and challenge the normative ideals that permeate the programs. Their own rhetoric emphasize respect, self-defence, family responsibility, independence etc., and challenge the program’s underlying assumption that morality can be dealt with detached from a particular context.

Authors

• Julie Laursen, Aalborg University, Denmark

• Annick Prieur, Aalborg University, Denmark