A skandináv büntetőpolitika és a büntető excepcionalizmus

Absztrakt

There has been an increased punitiveness in western societies over the last couple of decades, meaning that there has been increase of imprisonment, harsher conditions in prisons and a decrease of rehabilitative options. The present paper seeks to answer that what is the situation in the Scandinavian countries? Are the Nordic countries exceptional, and if so, in what sense and why? According to Pratt the Nordic countries exhibited a regime of penal exceptionalism, characterized by human standards of incarceration and low incidence of criminal confinement. Compared to other countries the Nordic countries have high welfare investments, low levels of fear, high levels of trust, non-punitive approaches in the public debates. Based on the relevant published literature our finding is that there seem to be a difference between an outside and an inside perspective regarding the Scandinavian penal policies and practices. It means that scandinavian researchers are normally less positive when describing the Nordic penal policies and prison conditions, contrast to non-scandinavians. For example they seem to have more focus on the pains when being imprisoned, such as being isolated, having to deal with violence. Several criminologists seems to emphasize that there is a tendency of a more punitive approach in Nordic countries, a more strict penal policy that is more political orientated and influenced by the media and the public opinions. From the outside perspective our opinion is that even though there seems to be a more punitive tendency within the Nordic countries, the Scandinavian model can be a role model for other countries.