485 prisons were so-called public prisons with many prisoners, sometimes of both sexes and in the same room, then it was difficult to believe that they could contribute to the individual improvement of the inmates. Prisons with cells were first introduced in Sweden during the 1840s, when the government could afford to build them. One of the arguments for them was that they would contribute to reforming the prisoners and in the long run make social control more effective and less expensive. Many of the advocates, e.g. Crown Prince Oscar, emphasized the humanitarian aspects at length. Prisons came to be a social experiment for individual prevention, although to begin with they were, both in Sweden and in other countries, primarily a place of custody due to lack of other facilities. The history of punishment shows the dilemma wnich the geographically mobile, propertyless class created. Banishment occurred d 'ring the Middle Ages and the 16th centruy, but this was not a feasible alternative in Sweden, which was on the road to becoming a national state. The small country town and the small county district found it difficult to find suitable sanctions and maintain their authority when monetary fines were not sufficient as compensation or deterrent. The function which prisons attained in time had relatively little to do with their historical background. A constellation of factors contributed to this development and different ideologies gave theoretical alibis for the few instruments which were available to maintain a working system of sanctions. While the institutions were roughly the same, the motives for their existance changed. FromViolence to Theft? One model which is often discussed states that society in Europe in the Middle Ages was characterized by widespead everyday violence, which successively decreased during later times, and was replaced in the courts by an increase in crimes against property. This statement number of French investigations where the transition “c/c la violence an appears to be confirmed empirically. Later this model has been criticised by French researchers as well as colleagues in other countries. In this study it can be seen that there is no support for this model in its original form. Crimes with elements of physical violence did vary in total over time, but no linear decrease can be traced in this area of investigation. Nor is it possible to discern any unequivocal rise in the number of crimes against property. Instead it seems that the latter have fluctuated in pace with the economic situation in pre-industrial Sweden. The model does seem to be confirmed in one instance, by our figures as well as by those of others, namely concerning the most serious acts of violence resulting in death. Everything points to the fact that the number of murder and was put forward partly as a result of a vol"
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