Criminal Policy in Sweden during the Last Fifty Years

Abstract

Criminal Policy in Sweden is still based on the Penal law of !864 promulgated in 1865. That Law was the result of preliminary legislative work of about fifty years and abrogated the Criminal Code of 1734 which, like most laws of those times, excelled in draconic penalties. In comparison with the old Penal Code, the punishments of the Law of 1864 are considerably mitigated. The death penalty was thus limited to a few categories of crime, and all especially severe forms of capital punishment-death by torture or followed by infamous treatment of the corpse-were abolished. During the time the Penal Law of 1864 has been in force, but few important alterations from the point of view of criminal policy have been made. Among these we notice the abolishment of penal servitude for life for persons having committed larceny after three previous convictions for the same crime, 1890; the abolition of the death penalty in 1921, and a revision of the fines in 1931, consisting in the amount of the fine being regulated according to the daily average income of the culprit. The most important development of the Penal Law from the point of view of criminal policy refers principally to the creation of new legal institutions either as supplements to the Penal Law or as special laws.