Crime and Criminal Policy in Iceland
| Author | Hildigunnur Ólafsdóttir,Ragnheidur Bragadóttir |
| Date | 01 April 2006 |
| Published date | 01 April 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370806061977 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Crime and Criminal Policy in Iceland
Criminology on the Margins of Europe
Hildigunnur ´
Olafsd ´ottir
Reykjav´ık Academy, Iceland
Ragnheidur Bragad ´ottir
University of Iceland, Iceland
ABSTRACT
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.
KEY WORDS
Crime Development / Criminal Policy / Iceland / Low Crime Rate / Small
Society.
Introduction
The evolution of crime has long been a subject of interest to Icelandic
criminologists, who have viewed Iceland as a typical case of a close-knit
Volume 3 (2): 221–253: 1477-3708
DOI: 10.1177/1477370806061977
Copyright © 2006 European Society of
Criminology and SAGE Publications
London, Thousand Oaks CA, and New Delhi
www.sagepublications.com
COUNTRY SURVEY
and homogeneous society, in which strong social control prevents crime
(Christie 1982, 2004). A low crime rate in a small society is a classic topic
that provides a constant source of questions and reflections for Icelandic
criminologists. During the later decades of the 20th century, statistics on
recorded crime in neighbouring countries increased rapidly. Scholars out-
side Iceland have connected this development with the ways in which
highly industrialized Western societies have organized economic life, pro-
duction, labour and the distribution of common goods and the ways in
which values have evolved (Garland 2001). Such social developments have
led to an increase in advertising and marketing, a tougher job market,
diminishing job security, more itinerant labourers and more unemploy-
ment. Icelandic society has undergone a parallel shift, more rapidly than
many other Western nations. All the aforementioned factors are considered
to be conducive to crime and to work against the social forces that prevent
crime, such as a homogeneous and cohesive society, a high level of
participation in the workforce and low unemployment, strong family ties
and effective public welfare services. Although public support for those
who have been excluded from Icelandic society is considerable, there
nonetheless exist social groups that are isolated for longer or shorter
periods of time. The ways in which such circumstances create the necessary
conditions for more crime and new types of offence in Iceland are thus an
issue of interest to the public, no less than to scholars. All this raises the
question of whether similar social changes to those in other advanced
economies have led to rising crime in Iceland, as elsewhere.
It is typical of public discussion of crime in Iceland that the same
question is asked over and over: Is crime increasing? This question has
been discussed extensively in the media, but it is a new development that
opinions on crime issues divide along party political lines. A political
consensus has emerged with particular clarity in relation to drug offences,
whereas divergent attitudes toward penalties for prostitution are a recent
example of different political emphases. One political party, the Left-
Green Movement [Vinstrihreyfingin-Grænt framboð1], has taken a strong
stand on making it a punishable offence to purchase a prostitute’s services.
This may be the first indication that political divisions in the politics of
crime and punishment are becoming sharper, as has occurred in many
European countries.
Approaches to the issue of increasing crime tend to follow two axes.
1In this paper, the names of Icelandic institutions and most other Icelandic words have been left
in their original form. The letter thorn, þ, represents a voiceless /θ/ like the ‘th’ in English thin,
and eth, ð, is a voiced /ð/ like the ‘th’ in English then. In the case of Icelandic personal names
(both in the text and in the bibliography) þhas been replaced with ‘th’ and ðwith ‘d’.
222 European Journal of Criminology 3(2)
On the one hand, the evolution of crime in Iceland over different time
periods is considered as one among a bundle of social changes. On the
other hand, crime in Iceland is compared with crime in other countries. For
criminology as an academic discipline, which is concerned with explaining
crime and placing it in social context, such comparison with other coun-
tries is of course necessary (Smith 2004). However, comparison with other
countries can also have particular importance for the self-awareness of
nations, which need a standard of comparison in order to understand their
own society. There has been variation over time as to which offences have
become the focus of attention and which have caused panic and unrest in
society. Individual instances of crime often generate a great deal of atten-
tion in a homogeneous and close-knit society and thus provoke strong
emotional responses. In a small society there is also less separation than in
more populous nations between the parties involved in individual offences,
the executive branch of government and the legislative branch of govern-
ment. It is to be expected that this intimacy between government and
popular opinion will make its mark not only on government and legis-
lature, but also on the scholarly community. Local issues often provide the
motivation for studies and reports, although there are also cases in which
foreign influences shape scholars’ choice of topics. The selection of research
topics in Icelandic criminology is thus tied to the position of this field in
society. The initiative for research has come variously from individual
scholars in the academic community and from official parties, and some-
times from individual employees of public institutions.
The present survey begins with a short description of the Icelandic
administration, the criminal justice system and the legal environment as
these pertain to the topic at hand. We will also describe the position of
criminology and the state of the field. There follows a presentation of the
statistical sources for the development of crime and punishment in light of
the available data. The principal topics addressed by Icelandic criminology
over the past five years and the main issues within these will be discussed.
Finally, we will present a few aspects of criminal policy as these have
emerged in public debate.
Background
Iceland is an island of 103,000 km2in the North Atlantic and is a part of
Europe. The interior of the country is largely uninhabitable; habitation is
thus for the most part restricted to the coast. Although the island is about
one-fifth of the size of France, it is sparsely populated; the population in
´
Olafsd´ottir and Bragad ´ottir Crime and criminal policy in Iceland 223
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