Iceland

Bragadóttir, Ragnheidur and Ólafsdóttir, Hildigunnur. "Crime and Criminal Policy in Iceland: Criminology on the Margins of"

Icelandic criminologists have classified Iceland as a country in which offences are rare. Despite an increase in crime during the 1990s, the incarceration figures are among the lowest in Europe. An overview of Icelandic research on crime and criminal justice over the past five years shows diversity in the topics chosen but also indicates that in certain areas there is no research to be found. The chief topics addressed in recent Icelandic work include the formation of boundaries between deviance and conformity, fear of crime, problems in the city centre, recidivism, the social status of inmates, youth crime and long-term trends in punishment for violent offences. This article traces how public discussion of criminal policy in recent years has centred on making punishments more severe. It will be shown that the demand for more severe punishment for drug offences is driven by utilitarian motives, whereas the arguments for punishment for sexual offences are based on the principle of retribution. At the end of the 20th century, attitudes toward crime and punishment were characterized by a consensus that is seen clearly in attitudes toward drug offences, whereas political divisions have recently emerged in discussion of sexual offences.

Hafsteinsson, Hafsteinn Gunnar. The implementation of restorative justice in Iceland: A comparison of police- and expert-led conferencing

On first of October 2006 the Ministry of Justice in Iceland launch a restorative justice pilot project. Building on the pilot project data, this thesis evaluates the implementation of restorative justice into the criminal justice system in Iceland by asking victims, offenders and other participants in police- and expert-led conferencing to answer questionnaires' relating to these two types of restorative justice practices to crime. The thesis compares its results with findings from a review conducted by Paul McCold (1998) who more than a decade ago challenged concerns on police facilitated conferencing. The data examined in the present thesis support Paul McCold's findings that police officers are capable of conducting conferences in a highly restorative manner when dealing with minor degree offences and that conferencing is an effective restorative justice practice that should be encouraged when conducted by police officers or trained professionals.(author's abstract)