Discontent with a treatment/punishment dichotomy current policy is one of prevention oriented rationality which focuses both on offenders and criminogenic social conditions. The system's response has moral and ethical implications for crime control, important in itself for crime prevention. The thrust is toward a criminal policy that relies on alternative responses external to the criminal justice system and that de-emphasizes the repressive nature of sanctions. Ask anyone, lay person or professional, where the most progressive, innovative, and humane criminal justice policy is and the answer will most likely be Scandinavia. There is a mystique about Scandinavia that pervades the academic and popular press regarding correctional methods and philosophies. For decades Scandinavian criminal justice policy has been a source of comparison, information, and direction. In 1966, Norvall Morris wrote an article entitled 'Lessons from the adult correctional system of Sweden' which was widely read and quoted and which put attention on a small, homogenous nation with a progressive, innovative, and humane criminal justice policy. Morris was not the first person to draw attention to Scandinavia; for in 1948 Thorsten Sellin, one of the Pioneers of American penology, stressed that 'we would do well to follow more intently the progress of penology in such countries (as Sweden).' Just prior to Morris' article John Conrad (1965) published a book which highlighted both the practices and philosophies of the Swedish system stressing the view that Sweden's response to crime was oriented more toward the restoration of equilibrium than toward vengeance or retribution and that punishment was seen to be more for deterrence than for retaliation. But what are the 'lessons' to be learned from Scandinavia? Within the period of time since world attention focused on the nature, structure, and programs in prisons, there have been major and significant changes not only in the policies followed in criminal matters in Scandinavia, but changes in philosophy as well. Each decade has brought with it reassessments of policy based on empirical findings and ideological changes. If there is a lesson to be learned from Scandinavia, it is that they learn from themselves and that criminal justice policy is fluid, self-critical, and amenable to change. (Author abstract)