The Chronic Petty Offender: Law Enforcement or Welfare Problem?

Abstract

This is a summary account of an operational study closely re lated to social action. It is realized that repeated short-term sentences imposed on chronic inadequate offenders are serving no deterrent purpose and that they might even satisfy some social and emotional needs of the repeaters. The purpose of the investi gation carried out in Toronto reformatories was to determine more precisely the nature of these needs, so that more humane and more economical social action could be planned to meet them, possibly outside the penal system. Results of the study challenge the soundness of many general izations derived from clinical and sociological data on the serious offender. The paper discusses implications of the study for social policy with regard to an important, and growing, segment of our criminal and socially inadequate population.