Reform Through Community: Resocializing Offenders in the Kibbutz

(Hardback)

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This book recounts a successful effort to resocialize criminal offenders in a kibbutz. Educational philosopher Michael Fischer and sociologist Brenda Geiger describe the events and experiences that unfolded with a kibbutz adopted Israeli ex-convicts as temporary members of its collective. They conclude that resocialization is achievable - that a world of hard work, interdependence, and self-denial can successfully compete against the temptations for adventure and diversion in an offender's past and present. Fischer and Geiger reconstruct the experiences of the Israeli ex-convicts who were invited to live and work as members of a Kibbutz' collective. They detail how a protective environment, daily routines, egalitarianism, peer group support, acceptance, and trust yielded involvement, commitment, and higher self-esteem on the part of the offenders. Relating the Kibbutz experience to theories of social psychology and criminology, Fischer and Geiger offer a model for resocialization combining group dynamics with social learning in a context of meaningful work and acceptance. This study is valuable to students and scholars of social psychology, criminology, and Judaic studies.

Author Bio

MICHAEL FISCHER and BRENDA GEIGER are Research Fellows at the State University of New York at Albany.