The novel Crime and Punishment takes place in the summer of 1865; a time when radical legal and social changes swept Russia. The reforms of the 1860s and 1870s were known as the Great Reforms because they affected every aspect of Russian life. With "an 1861 decree emancipating serfs and [a] monumental reform of the judicial system in 1864", Russian society was still in transition from a kingdom style of statehood to a more just system focused on equality (Burnham 1227). . The reformed penal system not only conforms to the modern sense of justice, but it provides a much higher level of equality than the previous model, dominated by aristocrats and government officials. A few years late, Russia followed the trend of other European countries in reshaping the criminal and penal justice system (Timasheff 16-18). According to The Politics of Punishment: Prison Reform in Russia, Robbins Jr. asserts that "the great reforms of the 1860s set in motion a process that radically altered the Russian penal system" (1282). France and England already had reformed and well-established courts; thus, the Russians felt the need to follow them (Historically speaking, since the Enlightenment, Russia wanted to be seen as a prosperous country like the great European nations, but its tyrannical government and social policies prevented this. Russia, the little half-brother of the European states, watched from afar the splendor of the flourishing western states. Russia's tsars, Peter and Catherine the Great, attempted to model the country as a western state while retaining an identity. unique Russian, and the 19th century illustrates this transition). Filled with a feeling of p...... middle of paper ......count (Dostoevsky 350-355). Dostoyevsky is cynical about the criminal justice system because it not only cheats society, but also its own rules. This all-powerful governmental power is reminiscent of previous unjust systems. Speaking of the dying horse in Raskolnikov's dream, the people insist that "she will gallop very well," but Dostoyevsky urges them not to beat the dead horse (57). A complete dismantling and rebuilding appears to be the only real solution to repairing Russia's disorganized justice and penal system. Dostoyevsky uses Crime and Punishment to analyze and criticize the transitioning legal and justice system of 1860s Russia. He argues that the true purpose of the criminal justice system is to rehabilitate and reestablish an individual; society needs this institution, because not everyone is as thoughtful and ultimately good-hearted as Raskolnikov.