Adolphe Prins and social defence in Belgium: The reform in the service of maintaining social order

Resumen

This chapter focus on Adolphe Prins’ influence on the birth, development and reception of the social defence doctrine at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Belgium. In a context dominated by fear of the “dangerous classes”, Prins proposes an integrated project of social and penal reforms, largely influenced by the positivist epistemological turn developing at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Social reformer to safeguard the social and political system, Prins also intended to reform the penal system to maintain order. The two dimensions of its reformist action complement each other in a global project fulfilling the traditional foundations of the liberal State law with a new legislative trend marked by a risk logic an insurance perspective. In the penal area, Prins’ project represents the search for an eclectic compromise between the fundamental principles of penal law and the endorsement of a dangerousness logic from positivist obedience.