Conscience and Convenience: The Asylum and Its Alternatives in Progressive America(New Lines in Criminology Series)

This book is a contribution to American social history and social policy in its own right, as well as forming a sequel to Rothman's earlier book, "The Discovery of the Asylum". Here, Rothman explores the origins and consequences of the programmes that have dominated criminal justice, juvenile justice and mental health in the past century. He also casts new light on the modern effort to reform the asylum and devise alternatives to it. Rothman aims to further our understanding of the fundamental character of social order - and disorder - in the United States. A new epilogue assesses prison conditions in America over the past two decades and the more recent failed attempts to reform them.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1: The Nineteenth-Century Legacy; 1: Coping with Evil; 2: The World of Criminal Justice; 2: Individual Justice: The Progressive Design; 3: Watching Over the Offender: The Practice of Probation; 4: Up Against the Prison Wall; 5: A Game of Chance: The Condition of Parole; 3: The World of Juvenile Justice; 6: The Invention of the Juvenile Court; 7: The Cult of Judicial Personality; 8: When Is a School Not a School?; 4: The World of Mental Health; 9: Civic Medicine; 10: The Enduring Asylum; 5: Dreams Die Hard; 11: The Diary of an Institution; EPILOGUE The Crime of Punishment

About the Author :
David J. Rothman, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.

Review :
-In Conscience and Convenience, Rothman examines the development of a series of related responses to social deviance arising in early twentieth century America: probation, parole, the juvenile court, the therapeutic mental hospital, and outpatient mental health care.- --Guyora Binder, Reviews in American History -Rothman has provided a framework for the history of institutionalization in America, and the rest of us will either be using it or dealing with it for some time to come.- --Rochelle Bookspan, The Public Historian -With Conscience and Convenience, David J. Rothman completes his earlier book, The Discovery of the Asylum (1971), in which he shows how the Jacksonian endeavors to rehabilitate the dependent and the deviant degenerated into little more than institutions for punishment and incarceration.- --Barbara Brenzel, The Journal of American History "In Conscience and Convenience, Rothman examines the development of a series of related responses to social deviance arising in early twentieth century America: probation, parole, the juvenile court, the therapeutic mental hospital, and outpatient mental health care." --Guyora Binder, Reviews in American History "Rothman has provided a framework for the history of institutionalization in America, and the rest of us will either be using it or dealing with it for some time to come." --Rochelle Bookspan, The Public Historian "With Conscience and Convenience, David J. Rothman completes his earlier book, The Discovery of the Asylum (1971), in which he shows how the Jacksonian endeavors to rehabilitate the dependent and the deviant degenerated into little more than institutions for punishment and incarceration." --Barbara Brenzel, The Journal of American History "In Conscience and Convenience, Rothman examines the development of a series of related responses to social deviance arising in early twentieth century America: probation, parole, the juvenile court, the therapeutic mental hospital, and outpatient mental health care." --Guyora Binder, Reviews in American History "Rothman has provided a framework for the history of institutionalization in America, and the rest of us will either be using it or dealing with it for some time to come." --Rochelle Bookspan, The Public Historian "With Conscience and Convenience, David J. Rothman completes his earlier book, The Discovery of the Asylum (1971), in which he shows how the Jacksonian endeavors to rehabilitate the dependent and the deviant degenerated into little more than institutions for punishment and incarceration." --Barbara Brenzel, The Journal of American History