AbstractsSociology

Recent controversies concerning the resocialization of criminals by the structures of Danish prisons brought the topic of contradictions between contemporary punishment and resocialization to our attention. We have through a spectrum of personal direct sources and the works of the wideranging theoreticists Erving Goffman and Michel Focault analysed and discussed the concept and reality of resocialization. The relationship between punishment and resocialization, though profoundly enlightened, can not be fully outlined as our data and particularly the definitions of resocialization are highly conflicting. We can however conclude, that a wide range of contradictions exists inside the prison.