A History of Constant Reform: Crime and Punishment in the Twentieth Century

In the twentieth century, laws, legal institutions, and prison facilities seemed to be characterized by a constant process of reform. Though there were occasional accelerations and downturns, the reform movement never entirely stopped. Thus, the discourses and practices of criminality and of legal sanctions and their execution evolved substantially, while the individuals involved in the legal and penal systems – the accused, accusers, lawyers, judges, prison inmates, prison workers, and criminologists – became more diverse in terms of gender, social and geographic origin, professionalization, etc