The Changing Role of Community Sanctions in Norway

Abstract

The Scandinavian penal exceptionalism literature has focused largely on imprisonment but has yet to explore other aspects of the penal field in detail. This chapter provides an overview of the penal field in Norway and how community sanctions and measures have evolved within it. The author uses the work of Wacquant and Bourdieu to argue that there are three important levels within the Norwegian penal field: political, policy and practice. The author also discusses how drivers from the political and policy levels are affecting community-based penal practice. Using McNeill’s dimensions of mass supervision, the author discusses the implications of these changes for three less-explored aspects of punishment in Norway: the serving of short sentences at home on electronic monitoring, supervision of people under 18 and ‘punishment debt’ enforcement.

Citation

Todd-Kvam, J. (2023), "The Changing Role of Community Sanctions in Norway", Maier, K., Ricciardelli, R. and McNeill, F. (Ed.) Punishment, Probation and Parole: Mapping Out ‘Mass Supervision’ In International Contexts, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 55-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-194-320231004