http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/867063790

Crime and justice in Scandinavia

This volume offers a comprehensive look at criminal justice policies, practices, and research in the Nordic countries. It shows why the Scandinavian criminal justice systems are as they are, how they are different fom those in other countries, and how they are changing. Topics range from the history of violence through juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, and sentencing to controversial contemporary policies on prostitution, victims, and organized crime. Compared to most developed countries, especially the United States, Scandinavian criminal justice systems are, and have long been humane. Punishments are moderate, prisons are small and orderly, and few people are locked up. As elsewhere in Europe, however, Scandinavian countries face social and political challenges. Populations are becoming more diverse, the region has been affected by the global recession, and conservative political parties have gained increased influence and are beginnning to politicize crime policy debates. Scandinavian approaches to to crime and punishment offer important lessons to scholars, citizens, and policy makers in other coutnries. Their present may be our future. More ominously if they sucuumb to the xenophobic and popuilist political pressures that exist everywhere, ours may be theirs.

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