NCJ Number
80621
Date Published
1980
Length
13 pages
Annotation
The work of the Swedish Ministry of Justice to revise the penal code is discussed, along with general trends in sentencing, which point to reduced use of imprisonment. The future of the penal code is speculated on.
Abstract
The research literature indicates not only that imprisonment with treatment has been generally unsuccessful in rehabilitating criminals but also that the prison environment may lead to greater criminality among its population. These findings have probably affected sentencing patterns in Sweden, even though official sentencing policy has remained the same. Imprisonment has been used less and less as a sanction, despite no reduction in the crime rate. The Ministry's committee is investigating possible reforms to the penal code, particularly in the areas of imprisonment, supervision, detainment, and juvenile incarceration. It is likely that juvenile incarceration and indeterminate treatment with supervision will disappear as sanctions, as will detention. Instead, the criminal justice system will probably have this set of available sanctions: fines, probation, probation plus a fine, supervision, supervision with a fine, supervision with a prison sentence of no more than 3 months, short-term imprisonment, imprisonment, and imprisonment with the option to increase the sentence. The advantages of this new system would be its simplicity and ease of application. No references are cited.