Levels of punitiveness in Scandinavia: description and explanations

In this chapter I will examine the thesis of Pratt in Punishment and Civilization (2002: 146) that penal policy in modern society departed from the civilizing process at the beginning of the 1980s, but with Scandinavia as an exception. His arguments, to support the contention that the Scandinavian countries had some built-in defences against this, were that (i) the welfare structure of these countries was open and consultative, and (ii) the Scandinavian countries enjoyed high levels of functional democratization.