Prison Reform in Russia and Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The novel Crime and Punishment occurs in the summer of 1865 a time when radical heavy and social changes swept through and through Russia. The reforms of 1860s and 1870s were known as the Great Reforms because they affected all aspect of Russian life. With an 1861 decree emancipating the serfs and a monumental reform of the court strategy in 1864, the Russian society was still transitioning from an Estate-of-the-realm style toward a more just system focused on equality (Burnham 1227). The reform punishable system is not just under the modern understanding of arbitrator, as yet it provided a far greater level of equality than the previous forge, rule by aristocrats and government officials. Lagging behind a few years, Russia was following the trend of the other European countries by remodeling the penal and guilty justness system (Timasheff 16-18). According to The Politics of Punishment Prison Reform in Russia, Robbins Jr. asserts, the Great Reforms of the 1860s set in motion a mathematical process that dramatically altered the Russian penal system (1282). France and England already had reformed and well-established courts thus, the Russians felt an urge to follow them (Historically speaking, from the days of the Enlightenment, Russia wanted to be considered a prosperous country like the great European nations, but its coercive government and social policies prevented it from doing so. Russia, the little stepbrother of the European states, looked from a outperform at the splendor of the flourishing states to the west. Russias Czars, Peter and Catherine the great, attempted to model the country like a western state while retaining a unique Russian identity, and the nineteenth century illustrates this transition). Filled with a sense of p... ...tally (Dostoevsky 350-355). Dostoevsky is cynical of the criminal justice system because not only does it getup society, but also it cheats its own rules. This almighty governmental power is reminiscent the previous unjust systems. Talking about the dying horse in Raskolnikovs dream, the people insist shes damn well issue to gallop, but Dostoevsky urges them not to beat the dead horse (57). A ended teardown and rebuilt seems like the only real solution to fixing the disorganized justice and penal system of Russia.Dostoevsky uses Crime and Punishment to analyze and critique the transitioning legal and justice system of 1860s Russia. He argues that the true purpose of the criminal justice system is to rehabilitate and restore an individual society necessitate the institution since not everyone is as thoughtful and ultimately good-hearted as Raskolnikov.