Adolphe Prins

Adolphe Prins (1845-1919) was a Belgian jurist, criminologist and inspector general of prisons who practiced law at the Brussels bar beginning in 1868 before becoming a leading figure in penal science. Nicknamed the Belgian Lombroso despite sharply disagreeing with Cesare Lombroso's biological determinism, Prins instead emphasized social and environmental influences on criminality and recidivism as a founder of the social defense movement, which argued that criminal policy should protect society through differentiated, individualized treatment of offenders rather than uniform retribution. In 1889 he co-founded the International Union of Criminal Law together with Franz von Liszt and Gerard van Hamel, and he was also an early advocate for judicial reforms protecting children.