Summaries fra  88. årgang Nr. 1 - marts 2001

Vagn Greve:

The Law on Execution of Sentences and Other Important Amendments to the Danish Penal System.

Until now, the prison administration in Denmark has regulated the actual content of prison, parole, and conditional sentences. In accordance with the rule of law, Parliament has now passed an act on the execution of sentences containing principles for execution and a bill of rights for convicts. This article provides an overview of the basic ideas in this act. At the same time, Parliament abolished the special sanction of lenient imprisonment, made new rules for traffic fines, and introduced specific time limits on the use of treatment sanctions for mentally deviant persons in closed institutions.

Hedda Giertsen:

The Relationship between Criminology and Criminal Policy

How are criminology and the politics of crime control related? While both concern crime, their aims, operations, and measures of success suggest their association with two different kinds of societal institutions: criminology with the institution of culture, including the arts and sciences, and crime control policy with the institution of politics. Seen in this light, some differences become clear. The task of politics is to find solutions based on holistic thinking, and to establish compromises between groups and interests. The task for science, on the other hand, is to initiate discussions on subjects such as history, or the science of literature, and to figure out ways in which they can be presented and better understood. Seen in this way, the contributions of criminology include knowledge, insight, conceptual discussions and so on. But the borders between criminology and the politics of crime control are not so easily drawn after all. The two fields are intertwined in many ways, for science is not isolated from society, but part of it. When seen as a cultural activity, not justified by practical results, criminology provides many possibilities for contribution. For example, criminology uncovers experiences and views from groups in society who are rarely heard. In this way we are given the possibility to get a broader and more realistic view of ourselves as a society.

Tor Gamman:

The Detrimental Effects of Solitary Confinement in Norwegian Prisons

Norway has been criticised for the excessive use of isolation among inmates who are held in custody. Among these critics is the Torture Committee of the Council of Europe (CPT). Despite criticism, there is no indication that the use of isolation will decrease. Studies have shown that isolation can lead to severe mental illness among inmates. The risk to mental health generally increases with the duration of the isolation. But we also know that certain inmates, who are predisposed for mental instability, cannot endure isolation at all. In medical terms, one can describe an "isolation syndrome" characterised by symptoms such as reduced cognitive capacity, and an inability to sleep and maintain a normal daily routines. It is also associated with depression, anxiety, and elevated feelings of distress. A comparison between samples of isolated and non-isolated inmates shows significant differences in well-being, use of medication, and mental health. Other studies have shown that isolation is associated with a high risk of hospitalisation during custody, and that more than half of all suicides in Norwegian prisons are committed during periods of isolation. The maximum length of isolation has no legal limit. It is up to the court to decide how long an inmate can be held under these conditions. Doctors are ordered to see isolated inmates on a weekly basis, but medical considerations are often disregarded by the court. This can lead to ethical problems for the medical staff.

Summaries fra  88. årgang Nr. 2 - juni 2001

Britta Kyvsgaard:

Harmony or Disharmony in the Development of Community Sanctions and Measures in the Nordic Countries

Until the beginning of the 1990's, a standing Nordic committee has worked towards harmonization of the penal codes within the Nordic countries. This committee has since been disbanded. While the Nordic countries have retained many similarities in the field of penal policy, the development of community sanctions and measures during the last decade has resulted in increasing divergence. Community service is the only new sanction that has been adopted by all of the Nordic countries, yet its specifics vary considerably between nations. In addition to this, each of the Nordic countries has adopted its own unique set of additional sanctions and measures, thus further increasing Nordic divergence on penal matters. This article examines whether penal policies in the Nordic countries remain similar enough to be meaningfully characterized as a group, or whether it makes better sense to compare them individually with the other nations of Europe.

Britta Kyvsgaard:

Community Sanctions and Measures in Denmark

In the early 1970's, Denmark abolished a number of special sanctions designed for the treatment and rehabilitation of offenders within institutions. Within a few years, however, the Danish criminal justice system began to focus on community sanctions as an alternative to imprisonment. The first community sanction experimented with was community service, which was introduced on a trial basis in 1982 and made statutory ten years later. Community service remains a viable alternative to incarceration in Denmark, and its scope of application has gradually broadened over time. During the 1990's, a number of other community sanctions and measures were introduced including a special contract for juveniles on probation, and various treatment programs for sex offenders, drug-addicted offenders, and drunken drivers with alcohol dependencies. A victim-offender mediation programme was also initiated, though not as an alternative to imprisonment, but as a supplement. This article outlines the scope and application of the community sanctions available in Denmark today. It is concluded that apart from the area of traffic violations, these sanctions and measures have not yet come to play a dominant practical role in the penal system, though they do serve important symbolic and political purposes. Community sanctions and measures are, however, likely to develop further and to become of more significant importance in the future.

Tapio Lappi-Seppälä:

Community Sanctions in Finland

Conditional sentences and parole supervision are traditional community sanctions. In 1950, 30% of sentences of imprisonment were imposed conditionally. The corresponding rate in 1999 was 62%. The conditional sentence has been one of the key tools through which Finland has succeeded in lowering its prison population during recent decades. New alternatives, introduced during the 1990s, are community service and juvenile punishment. An experiment with community service began in Finland in 1991. In 1997, community service became a permanent part of the system of sanctions. It can be used only in cases where the defendant would otherwise have received an unconditional sentence of up to eight months of imprisonment. The length of community service is at least twenty and at most 200 hours. One day of imprisonment corresponds to one hour of community service. Within a short period of time the number of community service orders imposed each year reached the level of 3,000-4,000. At the same time, the number of unconditional prison sentences fell significantly. Community service has clearly been able to function as a real alternative to imprisonment. In 2000, the average daily number of offenders serving a community service order was about 1,200, while the corresponding number of prisoners was around 3,000. Failure to complete the terms of community service has varied between 11-15%. In 1996, an experiment with a new sanction for young persons age 15-17 was introduced in five jurisdictions. The primary aim of juvenile punishment was to avoid the repeated use of conditional sentences among high-risk adolescents. This sanction consists of youth service (10-60 hours) and supervision (4 months - 1 year). In terms of severity, juvenile punishment falls somewhere between a fine and an unconditional prison sentence. When choosing between conditional imprisonment and juvenile punishment, the latter should be chosen if "juvenile punishment is deemed justified in order to prevent new offences and promote the social adjustment of the young offender". Successful completion of the program has been much lower than that shown for community service. This is no surprise given the greater overall tendency for misbehaviour among youths as opposed to adults. As a rule, the interruption of a sentence is regularly associated with serious drug or alcohol problems. Experiences with both community service orders and juvenile punishments confirm that the Finnish sanctioning system should pay additional attention to problems resulting from drug and alcohol abuse.

Ragnheiður Bragadóttir:

Community Sanctions in Iceland

During the last decade, three new sanctions were introduced to the Icelandic criminal justice system, which in some cases replace imprisonment. These are alcohol and drug treatment during sentences of imprisonment in closed institutions, sentences of imprisonment and probation in open institutions, and community service. This article describes the laws regarding these sanctions and discusses their application. An unusual aspect of community service in Iceland is that it is the prison administration, as opposed to a judge, that decides whether a convict gets community service. This is criticized since it is revealed that sanctions for certain types of offences have changed without the legislative assembly or the courts having had any influence in the matter.

Paul Larsson and Jane Dullum:

From Community Service to Community Punishment. Developments in the Use of Community Sanctions and Victim-Offender Mediation in Norway.

This article examines developments in the use of community sanctions in Norway. The list of such sanctions is limited, the most common being community service (introduced in 1984). Victim-offender mediation (introduced in 1981) is often presented as an "alternative sanction" in Norway, even though it is a type of restorative justice. Norwegian interest in alternatives to imprisonment blossomed during the late 1970's and early 1980's. The use of community service orders grew rapidly between 1984 and 1994, peaking at 1,026 sentences per year, but has since declined by nearly 50% to 557 sentences. Progress in the use of victim-offender mediation has been more uneven, but its use has grown steadily since the early 1990's. There were 6,644 mediated cases in 1999. Efforts to introduce additional alternatives, such as intensive supervision programs (ISP) and electronic monitoring, have increased over the past ten years. The latest development is the introduction of "community punishment", a new sanction combining different types of community sanctions. Community punishment will be imposed by the court, but the specific content of the sanction will be decided by the Probation Service and may include ISP, electronic monitoring, community service orders, or other programs.

Per Ole Träskman:

Community Sanctions and Measures in Sweden

The Swedish penal system openly acknowledges a just deserts ideology based primarily on imprisonment and fines that demands consistency and proportionality between the offence and the sentence imposed. Despite this and its clear dissociation from a treatment ideology, a number of community sanctions and measures oriented toward the individualisation of sanctions have developed. For instance, community service started on a trial basis in Sweden in 1990 and was made statutory in 1998. Community service is not a separate sanction, but can be combined with either a suspended sentence or supervision. A special community service order for young offenders, combined with supervision by the social authorities, has also been established. For offenders abusing alcohol or drugs, different measures with or without coercion have existed since the late 1980's. Electronic surveillance combined with intensive supervision was introduced in 1994 for offenders sentenced to imprisonment of up to 3 months. This arrangement, which is used for a large proportion of all potential cases, was made permanent in 1999. In general, Swedish sanctioning policy is designed to interfere as little as possible in the freedom of the individual.

Summaries fra  88. årgang Nr. 3 - September 2001

Anders Sjöberg:

The Internet Backyard: Racist, Anti-Semitic and Nazi Websites in Sweden, 1996-2000

Ole Brink og Villy Sørensen:

Is the Dark Figure of Violence Decreasing?

Dave Shannon:

Graffiti and Other Forms of  Delinquency.

Criminal Careers among Graffitists in Stockholm

Summaries fra  88. årgang Nr. 4 - dec 2001

Kimmo Nutio:

Europeanization of Criminal Law and Criminal Policy

The Europeanization of the criminal law is a vague concept, but one now calling for increased attention. This is primarily due to the rapidly increasing number of actions taken by the European Union that are relevant to criminal policy. Before certain changes in the mid-1990's, the criminal policy interests of the EU were rather limited. The first major EC law, or pillar, related to criminal policy lacked any open and direct criminal political efforts, but as we know that law has had a significant impact on the systems of criminal law within Member States. Under post-Maastricht conditions, the justice and home affairs law of the EU remained in the shadows of the sector policies of the community law. However, even before TEU Amsterdam entered into force, a new momentum emerged. The third pillar was reformed in order to meet the expectations of the 'citizens of Europe'. The measures needed were then seen as part of the creation of an 'Area of Freedom, Security and Justice'. The EU commission was given powers to produce initiatives on the issues agreed upon in the TEU. Especially after the 1999 European Council summit in Tampere, a whole framework of instruments relevant to criminal policy has been established. This article focuses primarily upon the newest proposals produced under the heading of JHA and summarised in the so-called 'Scoreboard' - an instrument used for the follow-up of these rapid developments.

Hanns von Hofer:

International Comparisons on Crime and Punishment

The paper presents short reviews of two major comparative data collection projects regarding criminal justice statistics: the "United Nations Surveys of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems" and the "European Sourcebook Project". The author points out some of the methodological problems that arise when data from official criminal justice statistics are used for comparative purposes. The "International Crime Victims Survey" (ICVS) is then presented as a useful complement for such international comparisons. Some summary results from a Nordic perspective are given. The author hopes that Norway and Iceland will (re)join future sweeps of the ICVS-project.

Per Ole Träskman:

International Comparisons and National Political Interests.

During the summer of 2001 journalists from six European countries collaborated on a small piece of research concerning differences found between their countries in the severity of punishment. Judges were asked to evaluate ten concrete, case scenarios involving shoplifting, drunken driving, rape, and other serious offences, and to estimate the most likely punishment that perpetrators of these crimes would receive. The current article demonstrates a number of weaknesses with the research conducted, especially noting that the case descriptions were insufficiently detailed to enable judges to make valid estimates. Despite this, the newspaper stories that resulted attracted much attention and were, inter alia, largely responsible for the introduction of a bill to increase the sentence for rape in Denmark.

Annie Vesterby Charles, Ole Brink & Jytte Banner:

Rapes and Attempted Rapes Reported and Not-Reported to the Police in Aarhus County, Denmark: November 1, 1999-November 1, 2000.

The first Danish rape crisis centre was established November 1st, 1999, in the County of Aarhus, Denmark. It is open day and night to victims of both rape and attempted rape, regardless of whether the alleged crime was reported to the police. The current study seeks to evaluate the extent and character of rape within the County of Aarhus, which has 640,000 inhabitants (12% of the Danish population). Data on rapes and attempted rapes committed between November 1, 1999, and November 1, 2000, were collected from files concerning victims who had either been seen by a doctor at the Rape Crisis Centre or reported an incident to the local police, or both. This database yielded 58 victim-cases for analysis. Ten (17%) of these victims reported their victimisation to the Rape Crisis Centre only, while 18 (31%) reported to police only, and 30 (52%) reported to both the Rape Crisis Centre and to the police. Four (29%) of 14 women who contacted the Rape Crisis Centre directly without prior reporting to the police decided to involve the police within one month of the incident. No obvious differences could be found between cases reported and those not reported to the police. Looking at all 58 victimisations, 40% were "stranger rape", 47% "date rape" and 13% "partner rape". Out of 48 cases reported to the police, five were rejected as false accusations and one was reclassified as indecent behaviour. Eight perpetrators were convicted.

Elisiv Bakketeig:

Why is our Understanding of Sexual Assaults against Children Characterised by Stereotypes?

In this paper I propose three explanations for why stereotypes tend to develop with reference to child sexual abuse. First, stereotyped understandings provide us with a certain distance and thereby protect us from the painful knowledge and images of child sexual abuse. Second, stereotypes create a comfortable distance between "normality" and abuse. Recognition of the "normality" of abuse might otherwise result in a threatening demand for fundamental changes in gender and power relations. Third, stereotyped understandings result from the unusually heated controversies surrounding the debate on child sexual abuse.