Open this publication in new window or tab >>2020 (Swedish)In: Nordisk Tidsskrift for Kriminalvidenskab, ISSN 0029-1528, no 3, p. 251-267Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
This article focuses on what is often termed the general (or public) sense of justice, GSJ for short. It illustrates the influence that the GSJ has had on variouspreparatory works in Swedish criminal law during a recent decade. It is oftenclaimed that the GSJ is used as an argument in political discourse and decisionmaking in the area of criminal law, especially to motivate criminalisation andharsher penal sanctions. Political points can be scored and general elections wonby deploying a tough stance on crime. A problematic aspect is that by appealingto the GSJ, legislators create a way to legitimise punitive measures with little orno empirical support in criminological research. Furthermore, the very conceptof the GSJ is unclear, contentious, and characterised by a plethora of interpretations.This article provides background on the GSJ in the Nordic countries andthereby gives context to some recent legislative work in Sweden. The article concludesthat legislators frequently reproduce phrases which, under closer inspection,appear quite hollow. The GSJ therefore seems to be more of a vague referenceused for political purposes as opposed to a representation of actual popularvalues.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Dansk Kriminalistforening, 2020
National Category
Law and Society
Research subject
Criminology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-37017 (URN)
2020-11-272020-11-272022-11-07Bibliographically approved