The question of question vs. punishment for chronic offenders has a fine line.
After reading “The Debate on Rehabilitating Criminals” (Miller 1989) it seems to me that Martinson did not seem to have all of his facts straight when he wrote his conclusion in 1974. The survey results that were being used were at best inconclusive. The crime rate in the early 70’s had become very high with the Vietnam War and everything. But how can someone judge the accuracy of rehabilitation when the subjects were only seen by counselors that were not “qualified” in psychotherapy, and only saw the subjects roughly five times a year. (Miller 1989)