The Scandinavian Prison Study

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxviii

   PDF

2. Scandinavian Prisons in Perspective

   • Stanton Wheeler, Hugh F. Cline

   Pages 1-18

3. Research Design and Methods

   • Stanton Wheeler, Hugh F. Cline

   Pages 19-40

4. Social Change and the Prison

   • Stanton Wheeler, Hugh F. Cline

   Pages 41-77

5. The Social Climate of the Prisons

   • Stanton Wheeler, Hugh F. Cline

   Pages 79-112

6. Personal Background and Response to Incarceration

   • Stanton Wheeler, Hugh F. Cline

   Pages 113-156

7. Patterns of Social Involvement and Inmate Response to Incarceration

   • Stanton Wheeler, Hugh F. Cline

   Pages 157-204

8. Personal Response in Divergent Prison Environments

   • Stanton Wheeler, Hugh F. Cline

   Pages 205-221

9. Considerations of Justice in the Sentencing and Treatment of Scandinavian Prison Inmates

   • Stanton Wheeler, Hugh F. Cline

   Pages 223-278

10. Back Matter

    Pages 279-352

    PDF

This book presents the formerly-unpublished manuscript by Wheeler and Cline detailing the landmark, comparative prisons study they conducted in the 1960s which examined fifteen Scandinavian prisons and nearly 2000 inmates across four Nordic countries. At the time, it was the largest comparative study of prisons and inmate behavior ever undertaken and despite 15 years of analysis and write-up it was never published but it influenced many other important prison studies that followed. This book engages with the functionalist perspectives that were widespread in the 1960s, and tries to answer some of the classical questions of prison sociology such as how prisoners adapt to imprisonment and the degree to which prisoner adaptations can be attributed to characteristics of prisoners and prisons. It examines the nature and structure of prisons, the effect of that structure on individual prisoners and the other factors that may influence the way that they respond to confinement. It also includes discussion about the prisoners’ considerations of justice and fairness and a explanation of the study design and data which was highly unique at the time. The Scandinavian Prison Study brings Wheeler and Cline's pioneering work into the present context with a preface and an introduction which discuss the questions and claims raised in the book still relevant to this day.  

• prison sociology
• prisons in norway
• importation perspective
• deprivation perspective
• Nordic prison
• prison policy
• history of prisons
• historical sociology
• social policy
• Nordic Exceptionalism
• prisoner behavior
• criminal justice
• histrorical sociology

• Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, Arlington, USA

  David J. Armor

• (Deceased), New Haven, USA

  Stanton Wheeler

• (Deceased), New York, USA

  Hugh F. Cline

David J. Armor is Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at George Mason University, USA.

Stanton Wheeler was Ford Foundation Professor of Law and the Social Sciences (Emeritus) at Yale Law School, USA.


Hugh F. Cline was Adjunct Professor of Sociology and Education at Teacher's College, Columbia University, USA. 

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