Of the Obligation to Support Oneself and One’s Family

Correctional Labour Facilities as aMeans of Social Welfare Enforcement and a Form of Crime Control from the 1920s to the 1970s

Abstract

This study analyses the coercive measures related to the collection of maintenance costs, more precisely the use of correctional labour facilities in Finland from the 1920s to the 1970s. In this article I examine a period when the idea of the individual's obligation to pay for the maintenance received was an integral part of Finnish social welfare. I study cases in which detention was seen as justified. My research shows that crime control and social welfare cannot be considered separately in the context of correctional labour facilities. I argue that social welfare created the possibility of interfering in the lives of these people and limiting their freedom. Social welfare thus functioned as a form of crime control.