ABSTRACT
WE have considered the nature of “crime”, and the character of the reaction of Society towards crime, which reaction has hitherto mainly taken the form of “punishment”. Crime, in the sense of some injury inflicted upon the public, it seems likely that we shall have always with us. This being so, it is certain that Society will always react against it. A Society which expressed no reaction against those who transgressed its laws would be dead. A Society whose reaction is ineffective is growing old and decaying, and so is about to vanish away. The history of penal reform may appear as an apparently incongruous tangle of unconnected movements. But a thread runs through them all. There has been an attempt to solve the problem as to what should be the reaction of society towards crime.
