NCJ Number
91329
Date Published
1983
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This paper traces postwar developments in Danish criminology and discusses the history of corrections, sources of criminal statistics, and criminality in Denmark, as well as the education and status of Danish criminologists and trends in Danish criminological research.
Abstract
From the beginning, the founders of modern Danish scientific criminology considered criminology to be a branch of a more comprehensive science of criminality, with criminology itself branching off into a number of main areas. The theoretical aspects of Danish criminology are still rather vague, with the younger generation of criminologists being predominantly empirically minded and oriented toward the practice of crime policy. Danish universities did not play any important part in the development of criminology until around 1945, with the influence of Hurwitz and Christiansen. Still, no Danish university awards a degree in criminology. Criminologists have no occupational status outside the small number of teachers assigned to teach criminology at two university institutes. The primary sources of information about criminality in Denmark are the official criminal statistics. Such data show an increase in criminality in Denmark from the mid-1950's to the mid-1970's (about 5 percent in the adult criminal population). Twenty-seven notes and 31 bibliographic entries are provided.