‘Just community’–a social cognitive research project in the penal system

Abstract

The implementation of a ‘Just Community” programme in a German youth prison has not only proven the pedagogical success of Kohlberg's intuitions about democratic education. Even under the hardships of imprisonment, democratic life forms promote progress in social understanding and responsibility. However, it is not the understanding of rules alone that promotes moral learning, but also a social setting that supports the development of deepened social relations.

The project shows, that the interpretation of Kohlberg's theory of stages as the moral articulation of reciprocal forms of social understanding in the sense of Selman is consistent.