Treatment in the Open- a History of Probation and Corporal Punishment in the Courts of England and Wales 1900 to 1950

The rehabilitation of the offender in the community is today an integral part of many criminal justice jurisdictions. This book takes a step back and describes how this modern aspect of criminal justice was introduced in England and Wales. At one level it is a history of criminal justice in England and Wales, at another an account of how shifting psychological and social work discourses became applied to the offender. It describes how modern beliefs in the treatment of the criminal arrived. The work uses archive material to show how policy and practice debates were resolved and the uneven and contested journey to a distinctly modern set of community penalties. Much of that archive material is discussed for the first time in this work and includes both government and practitioner records. The book will be of interest to all those working in the criminal justice sector or concerned with the rehabilitation of the criminal. The work is also aimed at academic historians and criminologists, particularly those interested in emerging debates about the history of crime and its treatment.