Reform Through Community: Resocializing Offenders in the Kibbutz

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This book recounts a successful effort to resocialize criminal offenders placed in Kibbutzim. Social scientist Michael Fischer and educational philosopher Brenda Geiger describe the events and experiences that unfolded when a Kibbutz adopted an Israeli exconvict as a temporary member of its collective. They conclude that resocialization is achievable that a world of hard work, interdependence, and selfdenial can successfully compete against the temptations for adventure and diversion in an offenders past and present. Fischer and Geiger reconstruct the subjective experiences of the Israeli exconvicts who were invited to live and work as members on separate Kibbutzim. They detail how a protective environment, daily routines, egalitarianism, peer group support, acceptance, and trust yielded involvement, commitment, and higher selfesteem 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.

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