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Reflections on Norway’s juvenile justice model: A comparative context

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Crime Prevention and Community Safety Aims and scope

Abstract

Juvenile delinquency and its relationship to the complex contemporary challenges that confront (certain) young people remain an enigma for many national juvenile justice systems (JJS). One exception to this global trend is Norway, which has experienced low levels of youth crime even though it processes youth within the adult criminal justice system at age 15. With few such exceptions, most industrialised liberal democratic countries have utilised a variety of distinctive JJS separate from their adult criminal justice systems. In this article, the ‘Norwegian model’ is examined to assess whether it is theoretically unique to Norway and, if so, why. The broader political, social and economic contexts appear essential in explaining the success of a JJS embedded in the adult criminal justice system. The article concludes with several policy observations.

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Notes

  1. In 2013, 53 150 children received some kind of intervention support from Norway’s Child Welfare Services – approximately the same number as in 2012 (Statistics Norway, 2014). On the basis of his survey of 90 countries, Hazel (2008) found that only 14 (15 per cent) countries have a higher upper age limit and outside of the Nordic countries, only three other countries have 15 as their upper age limit (for example, Czech Republic, Slovakia & Tanzania).

  2. Between 1960 and 1990 the per capita imprisonment rate in Norway was fairly steady at around 62 per 100 000 but since the early 90s through to 2012 it has climbed fairly steadily to a rate of around 90 per 100 000 (Statistics Norway, 2014).

  3. For example, Norway was the last of the Nordic countries to introduce electronic monitoring (EM) as an alternative sanctioning option. EM was introduced in 2008 while Sweden has been using EM since the mid-1990s where it has been used to replace short-term (initially up to 3 months – but now extended to 6-month sentences) prison sentences (Statistics Norway, 2013).

  4. The Act was first drafted in 1892 (Midgley, 1975).

  5. Norway was the first Nordic country to enact child welfare legislation. Sweden did so in 1902, followed by Denmark in 1905, and Finland was a late comer in 1936. But Finland was the first to enact its Juvenile Crime Act in 1940 (Harrikari, 2011).

  6. Offences reported to the police per 1000 pop. for 2012 was 76.3. Cowen (2010) provides a comparative summary of major convention crime rates across 36 countries. For crimes like intentional homicide, robbery, assault and burglary, Norway ranked in the lower third of the countries. However, for rape and motor vehicle theft it ranked in the top half of the countries and 10th out of 36 countries in terms of punitivity ratio – well above its neighbours Finland (36th), Demark (35th) and Sweden (33rd).

  7. The Norwegian penal code from the thirteenth Century decreed that children not be punished as harshly as adults. Norway may well have been one of the first countries to recognize that children and young persons’ have different needs.

  8. According to the 2015 Economic Freedom Index, Norway ranks 27th in the world (www.heritage.org/index/country/norway).

  9. Polish, Lithuanian and Syrian citizens made up the largest proportion of net migrants but countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece continue to be well represented as they emigrate from regions of high unemployment (Statistics Norway, 2014).

  10. There are only two facilities for young offenders in Norway and they are located in Bergen and Oslo.

  11. In 2008 Norway introduced a pilot programme of home detention and electronic monitoring in six counties which is reported to have ‘up to a moderate positive effect compared to a matched comparison group’ (Statistics Norway, 2013).

  12. For example, a number of municipalities currently use the Multi-systemic Therapy (MST) programs (see Storgaard, 2005).

  13. The ECHR does not mention children’s rights explicitly.

  14. In 1981, Norway became the first country in the world to establish a Children’s Ombudsperson. An example of the Ombudsman’s efforts to support the welfare of children, in 2012 Dr Anne Lindoe, Norway’s Children’s Ombudsman called for an end to circumcisions- describing it as unnecessary in this day and age (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=74NJSOjBTNI).

  15. Typically, the order lasts between 30 and 420 hours which must be completed within 1 year.

  16. In 1994 5-year old Silje Redegård was beaten with stones by two 6-year olds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Justice Studies and Political Science, Mount Royal University, Town 4825 Mount Royal Gate S.W, Calgary, T3E 6K6, AB, Canada

    John Winterdyk

  2. School of Social Sciences, Business and Law, Teesside University, Middlesbrough TS1 3BA, UK

    Georgios A Antonopoulos

  3. School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, V5A 1S6, British Columbia, Canada

    Ray Corrado

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  1. John Winterdyk
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  3. Ray Corrado
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Correspondence to John Winterdyk.

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Winterdyk, J., Antonopoulos, G. & Corrado, R. Reflections on Norway’s juvenile justice model: A comparative context. Crime Prev Community Saf 18, 105–121 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/cpcs.2016.3

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