Danish Punishment and the “Law of Jante”

• In Event: Values in Criminal Justice Policy, Values in Our Research

Abstract

Scholars have theorized and empirically investigated Scandinavian countries’ exceptionally humane approach to punishment and social control. The values that undergird this system—dignity, normalization, resocialization—are buttressed by egalitarianism and communal responsibility that structure the strong welfare states characterizing countries in this region. We utilize data from fieldwork in Denmark to analyze two slightly more subterranean values embedded in Danish culture: homogeneity and inclusion. The social “Law of Jante” prescribes that no individual should be too different or unique, to avoid creating distance from the group, or indicating a separatist, superior attitude. However, Denmark is rapidly becoming less demographically homogeneous, and a recent influx of immigrants and refugees has further challenged common conceptions of who is Danish and who can claim Danish values and a life structured by them. An examination of the “Law of Jante” in relation to punishment policies and practices can help us understand what appears at first glance as a departure in cultural norms of egalitarianism and communal responsibility in the country’s recent approach to immigration. Making sense of this provides further insight into parallel shifts in cultural values, immigration practices, and (inevitably) punishment today in the United States.

Authors

• Lori Sexton, University of Missouri-Kansas City

• Jennifer Sumner, California State University Dominguez Hills

• Keramet Reiter, University of California, Irvine