Comparing Norwegian and American Responses to Extremist Violence

• In Event: Comparative and Cross-National Comparisons of Attitudes and Perceptions of Laws, Legal Systems, Offenders and Punitiveness

Abstract

This paper is a part of a Fulbright grant that compares criminal and political responses and non-responses to extremist violence. While many advanced democracies have acted to limit access to firearms and lethal weapons after mass casualty events, beyond immediate reactions to a crisis event, the United States has done comparatively little to curtail access to weapons and firearms in the last three decades. While politically motivated violence is rare in Europe, gun violence is extremely common in the United States. Based on archival research in Oslo, Norway, this paper offers an examination of Norwegian responses to politically motivated shootings after three events in the past dozen years. This comparative insight is applied to the United States in specific cases and broad policy inactions.

Author

• Brian Wolf, University of Idaho