Topic > The Purpose of Crime and Punishment in the Victorian Era

Rehabilitation is aimed at preventing future crimes by bringing about changes within the offender and hopefully making him or her less likely to reoffend. From then until now there have been many different programs that have been developed to bring about changes in education, vocational training and leisure. The challenge of corrections was to keep offenders in the community and reintegrate them into the community. One approach to rehabilitation is the reintegrative philosophy, which aims to reintegrate offenders into the community as soon as possible. The idea was developed that every effort should be made to return offenders to the community as “law-abiding citizens.” To do this, the rehabilitation of delinquents and change towards the community was important. Until the mid-1970s, rehabilitation was a key part of U.S. prison policy. Prisoners were encouraged to develop work skills and resolve any psychological problems they may have that may cause them problems reintegrating into society (Benson, 2003). Rehabilitation is currently strongly encouraged. Treatment programs are available to help someone get on the right path. There are now twelve-step programs, professional group treatments, individual or group therapy, and cognitive therapy