Abstract

The downfall of the rehabilitative ideal is considered a decisive episode if we want to understand the changes that have transpired in crime policy the last three to four decades. In Sweden, the downfall followed abruptly on the final establishing of individual prevention as theoretical bases for crime policy by the enactment of a new penal code in 1965. This paper follows the trajectory of the downfall in Sweden by doing a genealogy thereof. The purpose is to contribute to a more empirically developed understanding of the course of Swedish crime policy during the formative years of the 1970s to the early 1990s. Firstly, the paper addresses the topic by examining the scholarly critique that paved the way for the downfall of the rehabilitative ideal. Secondly, the paper analyses the political handling of the downfall and the consequence this had for policy. Methodological this is done by way of genealogy exploring the historical pedigree of present-day crime policy in Sweden, not as a linear development, but as plural and sometimes contradictory pasts. Theoretical the paper aims to analyze the trajectory by way of a governmentality perspective, i.e. it focuses on crime policy as a means of governing life and the population, thus exploring the different forms governing takes.

Highlights

  • In 1965 a new penal code was enacted in Sweden, a code that in itself was a manifestation of the rehabilitative ideals hold over Swedish crime policy

  • 2 In these somewhat dichotomised explanations, John Pratt launches an even more dichotomising conceptualisation claiming that, contrary to penal populism and a punitive turn dominating the Anglo-Saxon world, there is a Scandinavian exceptionalism. This exceptionalism manifests itself in terms of lenient sentences, low imprisonment rates and in a general tolerance towards crime and criminals framed as a sort of ‘manifest destiny’ of the social democratic welfare states of Scandinavia.[3]

  • Since there are few studies directly addressing the topic of the downfall of the rehabilitative ideal, one of the objects of this paper is to examine the scholarly critique that paved the way for the downfall of the rehabilitative ideal within Swedish crime policy

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Summary

Introduction

In 1965 a new penal code was enacted in Sweden, a code that in itself was a manifestation of the rehabilitative ideals hold over Swedish crime policy. 2 In these somewhat dichotomised explanations, John Pratt launches an even more dichotomising conceptualisation claiming that, contrary to penal populism and a punitive turn dominating the Anglo-Saxon world, there is a Scandinavian exceptionalism This exceptionalism manifests itself in terms of lenient sentences, low imprisonment rates and in a general tolerance towards crime and criminals framed as a sort of ‘manifest destiny’ of the social democratic welfare states of Scandinavia.[3] Still one could argue that the many conceptualisations of punitiveness and penal populism remain mainly undefined, resulting in a situation wherein much of the related analysis is vague, and the historical developments that are to be clarified are asserted rather than explained.[4]. Losing the scientific legitimacy of individual prevention meant that legitimacy came to be upheld by politicians appealing to what is termed the general sense of justice This restructuring of the field of crime policy in turn made it politically possible to launch policies that countered empirical findings made by criminology

Theoretical and Methodological Starting Point
The Rehabilitative Ideal in Sweden
Part I
The Penal Law as Class Law
The Legal Argumentation against Individual Prevention
Individual Preventions’ Lack of Result
A New Crime Problem
Implausible Solutions
From General Prevention to Just Deserts
Part II
Violent Crime as a Catalyst
The Dualisation of the Crime Problem
The General Sense of Justice
Concluding Remarks

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