NCJ Number
82566
Journal
International Journal of the Sociology of Law Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1982) Pages: 9-29
Date Published
1982
Length
21 pages
Annotation
The effectiveness of an independent socioeconomic community (Christiania) in Copenhagen, Denmark, in reducing criminal behavior is examined, and implications for crime policy are discussed.
Abstract
In the 1960's, Denmark experienced an unexpected and simultaneous rise in both prosperity and crime, creating a crisis of knowledge in criminal policy, which had formerly operated on the assumption that an increase in prosperity and a consequent reduction in unemployment would reduce the circumstances conducive to crime. During this same period, a group of young people occupied abandoned military barracks in a section of Copenhagen and vowed to create a new socioeconomic community free of the pollution and exploitation of larger society. Among those attracted to this new community called Christiania were persons with prior criminal activity. The authorities permitted the establishment of Christiania on the abandoned military base under the guise of a social experiment. A number of research studies have shown that young persons with criminal records have, during their time in Christiania, been more able to remain free from crime than before moving to Christiania. The focus in Christiania is on elementary human rights, such as opportunities for work, meaningfulness in work, greater integration between working, free time, environment, and material opportunities to survive and avoid poverty. When crime does occur, it does not become an occasion for isolating and stigmatizing the offender, but for intensifying support of the offender and determining how his/her needs may better be met in the community life. The Christiania experience suggests that crime stems from grass-roots alienation from the benefits of dominant community life and that crime might be reduced more through guidance in community development than intervention by police and the criminal justice system, which tends to increase the alienation of the offender from normative living. Five references and two notes are provided.