Crime and Punishment | Ideas for Group Discussion

Study of the penal code of Russia during the later nineteenth century will help to explain the moral dilemmas, Raskolnikov considers. The behavior of the police in Crime and Punishment strikes some readers as peculiar. For instance, does it seem odd that Porfiry accuses Raskolnikov and then jokes with him and releases him (the young man is never taken into custody until he confesses), with only the suggestion that he will be arrested in a few days? Porfiry knows that Raskolnikov committed the crime, but he cannot prove it—indeed, it seems likely that he never could have proved...

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