By Maja Vestad, Rose E. Boyle and Marina Hiller Foshaugen There is great power inherent in consumers’ online reviews of establishments, activities and facilities: positive reviews inspire further custom and can affect how commercial actors are ranked by algorithms and search engines, whereas poor reviews keep would-be visitors away. Online reviewing on Google is largely…
By Hildur Fjóla Antonsdóttir State compensation schemes for victims of crime are based on the idea that the state has a duty to protect its citizens from crime, and awards compensation as recognition of a sense of public sympathy and social solidarity with victims. While the law is gender neutral, its application reveals a gendered…
By Felipe Estrada I was recently in Chile as a visiting professor and was expecting to find a different conversation on crime and punishment than the Swedish one. The reason for my optimism was the rapid social changes that had occurred during and after the massive social protests in 2019-2020. One of the political consequences…
By Fred Markowitz The vast majority of persons with a mental illness are not dangerous, yet may be stigmatized by the public due to perceptions of danger. However, studies in several countries have shown the risk of violence and criminal offending is elevated among those with certain mental illnesses, especially when combined with substance abuse. …
By Margit Anne Petersen, Geoffrey Hunt and Alexandra Bogren Nordic concerns about sexual victimization have recently become more prominent, fueled by the #MeToo movement, and EU surveys highlighting high prevalence rates of sexual harassment and assault in Scandinavia. While rape is given greater priority by criminal justice authorities, victims of “less serious” incidences find themselves…
By Helene O. I. Gundhus and Pernille Erichsen Skjevrak The Norwegian Police are bringing risk assessment tools into use to identify young people who are the ‘most suitable candidates’ for crime prevention. Drawing on field studies, we analyse to what degree these practices are expanding and sharpening surveillance. How much do risk assessment technologies increase…
By Annica Allvin Research on spatial crime patterns have grown greatly and an increasing number of police forces worldwide have invested in geographical information systems (GIS) and different tools to predict future criminal activity. As society keeps getting more digitalized, Norwegian policymakers too have shown an increasing interest for new technological solutions that can enhance…
By Aino Jauhiainen Finland has a rich history of victim- offender mediation. Initiated in 1983 and applied into criminal justice legislation in 2005, this restorative justice practice currently receives around 13 000 criminal cases per year. The ensemble of previous research on this topic is large, containing studies on moral emotions, youth delinquency, intimate partner violence…
By Nea Lepinkäinen and Hanna Maria Malik Political systems face increasing pressure to deliver decisions at accelerated speed, and a failure to keep up with these rising standards deems the state bureaucracies the epitome of slowness, inflexibility and inefficiency. In other words, in modern societies, characterized by continuous acceleration, adherence to legalistic procedures collides with…
By Helgi Gunnlaugsson Many signs of a retreat in the control of drugs can be detected in Iceland in most recent years. Instead of a predominantly criminal justice response toward possession of drugs, abuse of drugs is increasingly being viewed as a public health problem. A case in point demonstrating a shift, minor possession of…
