Opvoeding als doelbewuste civilisering. Een penitentiair beschavingsoffensief in het interbellum

Samenvatting

Education as a Form of Intended Civilization. A penal ‘civilizing offensive’ during the Interbellum. In some periods of the European process of civilization intentional attempts were made to lift up the lower classes through programs of education and charity. In more or less the same way Dutch penologists and prison-experts between the first and second world war tried to educate and civilize prisoners and heighten their level of self-discipline and self-control. Whereas in the United States Thomas Mott Osborne initiated risky experiments with self-government in large prisons (Sing-Sing, Auburn), the Dutch penologists were, for a variety of reasons, more engaged in theory than in practice. They relied strongly on contemporary psychological theories which also stressed the importance of internal restraint. These so-called ‘civilizing offensives’ reveal a theoretical tension with the largely unintended development of the civilizing process as described by Norbert Elias. These offensives also conflict with the assumed importance of a drift to social distinction in this process. Instead of keeping aloof from the lower class people these educators seem willing to reduce the social distances. By a description and interpretation of the attempts to reform criminals in Dutch penitentiaries during the pre-war period, the author tries to clarify the theoretical tensions just mentioned.