Rehabilitation in Principle and Practice: Perspectives of Inmates and Officers

This article addresses rehabilitation, its conceptualisation by officers and inmates, and its expression in practice within a select Norwegian prison. It reports on findings from a qualitative interview-based research project conducted as a pilot study, whereby semi-structured interviews were conducted with inmates and officers at the prison. Furthermore, the authors examine the principle of rehabilitation as it follows from Norwegian law and assess how it is implemented in practice in a Norwegian prison. The preliminary findings from the study reveal factors—such as inmate isolation and mental health challenges, drug use, unequal treatment, and limited capacity and resources—that are impacting the effectiveness of what the prison has intended to achieve and ask for further research and discussion in this area.publishedVersio

Sanity and Insanity : Concepts and Rules.

As in many other countries, the Norwegian criminal law requires sanity at the time of the offense as a condition for criminal responsibility. In the legal discourse, sanity is conceived as a capability for guilt – “skyldevne” – which amounts to capacity for criminal responsibility or criminal capacity. Yet the rules of the criminal law do not define or even mention sanity. They do, however, provide criteria for the conditions that negate sanity, thus implying insanity. According to Section 44 of the Norwegian Criminal Code, a person who was psychotic, unconscious or highly mentally retarded at the time of the offense cannot be held liable for a penalty. The current article focuses on mental disorder as a condition for excuse. The ambition of the article is to explain the meaning and justifications of sanity as a condition for criminal responsibility. More specifically, it aims to create a clarification of the concepts of sanity and insanity as they are constructed in the criminal law and its doctrines on responsibility. As the title suggests, the article also focuses on the relation between concepts and rules. After clarifying the meaning of legal insanity, the article discusses the content of the current regulation in the criminal code and possible alternatives to it.publishedVersio

Imaging Violence in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Critical Discussion of the MRI Literature

Background: Persons with schizophrenia have a small but significant increase in risk of violence, which remains after controlling for known environmental risk factors. In vivo MRI-studies may point toward the biological underpinnings of psychotic violence, and neuroimaging has increasingly been used in forensic and legal settings despite unclear relevance.Objectives: (1) To present the first systematic review, following standardized guidelines, of MRI studies of violence with schizophrenia. (2) To critically discuss the promises and pitfalls of using this literature to understand violence in schizophrenia in clinical, forensic, and legal settings.Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines and literature searches until January 2018, we found 21 original studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria: (1) Studies of persons with schizophrenia, (2) a history of violence or aggressive behavior, (3) the use of one or more MRI-modalities (sMRI, DTI, fMRI).Results: The most consistent findings from the structural studies were reduced volumes of the hippocampus and the frontal lobe (in particular the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex) in schizophrenia patients with a history of violence or higher aggression scores. The functional studies mainly showed differences and aggression correlates in the frontal lobe and amygdala. However, the studies were methodologically heterogeneous, with four particular areas of concern: different definitions of violence, region of interest vs. whole-brain studies, small subject samples, and group comparisons in a heterogeneous diagnostic category (schizophrenia).Conclusion: The literature reports subtle, but inconsistent group level differences in brain structure and function associated with violence and aggression with schizophrenia, in particular in areas involved in the formation of psychosis symptoms and affective regulation. Due to methodological challenges the results should be interpreted with caution. In order to come closer to the neurobiological underpinnings of violence in schizophrenia future studies could: (1) address the neurobiological differences of premeditated and reactive violence, (2) use RDoC criteria, for example, or other symptom-based systems to categorize psychosis patients, (3) increase subject cohorts and apply new data driven methods. In this perspective, MRI-studies of violence in schizophrenia have the potential to inform clinical violence prediction and legal evaluations in the future

Tilregnelighet og utilregnelighet : begreper og regler

As in many other countries, the Norwegian criminal law requires sanity at the time of the offense as a condition for criminal responsibility. In the legal discourse, sanity is conceived as a capability for guilt – “skyldevne” – which amounts to capacity for criminal responsibility or criminal capacity. Yet the rules of the criminal law do not define or even mention sanity. They do, however, provide criteria for the conditions that negate sanity, thus implying insanity. According to Section 44 of the Norwegian Criminal Code, a person who was psychotic, unconscious or highly mentally retarded at the time of the offense cannot be held liable for a penalty. The current article focuses on mental disorder as a condition for excuse. The ambition of the article is to explain the meaning and justifications of sanity as a condition for criminal responsibility. More specifically, it aims to create a clarification of the concepts of sanity and insanity as they are constructed in the criminal law and its doctrines on responsibility. As the title suggests, the article also focuses on the relation between concepts and rules. After clarifying the meaning of legal insanity, the article discusses the content of the current regulation in the criminal code and possible alternatives to it

An efficient anticorruption sanctions regime. The case of the World Bank

Open AccessWith its sanctions regime, the World Bank has sent a clear message to client governments and suppliers that it will not tolerate corruption. However, as this Article argues, with its present design, the sanctions regime at the same time runs counter to the World Bank’s own development agenda. Thus, the regime will have limited effect in protecting funds for development, reducing corruption risks, promoting the integrity and functionality of markets, and strengthening domestic law enforcement institutions. A key problem is that efforts to strengthen law enforcement at the national level are too limited. The sanctions primarily target private suppliers, while governments are not held responsible when fraud or corruption occurs. This reflects the World Bank’s challenging mandate to offer financial support to developing country governments while also trying to secure efficient use of the funds after they have been transferred. In considering alternative designs for its anti-corruption strategy, the Bank should collaborate with other international development banks to demand integrity mechanisms that rely upon and strengthen domestic law enforcement institutions and competition authorities in client countries

Rehabilitation in Principle and Practice: Perspectives of Inmates and Officers

This article addresses rehabilitation, its conceptualisation by officers and inmates, and its expression in practice within a select Norwegian prison. It reports on findings from a qualitative interview-based research project conducted as a pilot study, whereby semi-structured interviews were conducted with inmates and officers at the prison. Furthermore, the authors examine the principle of rehabilitation as it follows from Norwegian law and assess how it is implemented in practice in a Norwegian prison. The preliminary findings from the study reveal factors—such as inmate isolation and mental health challenges, drug use, unequal treatment, and limited capacity and resources—that are impacting the effectiveness of what the prison has intended to achieve and ask for further research and discussion in this area

Intoxication and self-induced criminal incapacity in Norwegian law

This article provides an explanation and analysis of the regulation of criminal incapacity and intoxication in Norwegian criminal law. The current rule on this matter is found in section 20 of the Norwegian Penal Code. This rule is strict and does not require that the defendant was culpable in creating his or her incapacity (or for committing the crime in this condition). The authors explain how this rule has been subject to critique, in particular because it compromises the principle of guilt. On this background, they offer a broader picture of Norwegian criminal law, by examining the alternative solutions found in the Penal Code of 1902 and in the two recent law proposals NOU 2014:10 and Prop. 154 L (2016-2017) – which provide for a shift in focus to self-induced criminal incapacity. The authors argue that the guilt principle must be the guiding perspective for the construction of rules on intoxication and self-induced criminal incapacity. On this basis, they argue that the current rule should be abolished, and that the proposal in NOU 2014:10 is the most adequate alternative, although it is also coupled with some problems. They conclude that the operationalisation of the guilt principle requires a larger engagement in the philosophical debate on the matter than what has so far been the case in Norwegian criminal law

Criminal justice and detention

This chapter evaluates the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Articles Art. 37 and 40) in the policy and practice of detention of children within the Norwegian criminal justice system. It covers three different forms of detention (pre-trial police custody, pre-trial court-ordered custody and detention as punishment) from a legal and empirical perspective. The chapter finds that Norway has, to a large extent, addressed many critiques from the CRC Committee, including on limitation of the use of detention, conditions for detained children, and the need for various law reforms. However, challenges remain in relation to time-unlimited preventive detention of children and conditions in police detention. Moreover, the authors highlight a cross-cutting challenge within Norway has – the near absence of specialization with regard to youth criminal justice, and conclude that there is a need for the further development of alternatives to traditional criminal justice detention

Imaging Violence in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Critical Discussion of the MRI Literature

Background: Persons with schizophrenia have a small but significant increase in risk of violence, which remains after controlling for known environmental risk factors. In vivo MRI-studies may point toward the biological underpinnings of psychotic violence, and neuroimaging has increasingly been used in forensic and legal settings despite unclear relevance. Objectives: (1) To present the first systematic review, following standardized guidelines, of MRI studies of violence with schizophrenia. (2) To critically discuss the promises and pitfalls of using this literature to understand violence in schizophrenia in clinical, forensic, and legal settings. Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines and literature searches until January 2018, we found 21 original studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria: (1) Studies of persons with schizophrenia, (2) a history of violence or aggressive behavior, (3) the use of one or more MRI-modalities (sMRI, DTI, fMRI). Results: The most consistent findings from the structural studies were reduced volumes of the hippocampus and the frontal lobe (in particular the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex) in schizophrenia patients with a history of violence or higher aggression scores. The functional studies mainly showed differences and aggression correlates in the frontal lobe and amygdala. However, the studies were methodologically heterogeneous, with four particular areas of concern: different definitions of violence, region of interest vs. whole-brain studies, small subject samples, and group comparisons in a heterogeneous diagnostic category (schizophrenia). Conclusion: The literature reports subtle, but inconsistent group level differences in brain structure and function associated with violence and aggression with schizophrenia, in particular in areas involved in the formation of psychosis symptoms and affective regulation. Due to methodological challenges the results should be interpreted with caution. In order to come closer to the neurobiological underpinnings of violence in schizophrenia future studies could: (1) address the neurobiological differences of premeditated and reactive violence, (2) use RDoC criteria, for example, or other symptom-based systems to categorize psychosis patients, (3) increase subject cohorts and apply new data driven methods. In this perspective, MRI-studies of violence in schizophrenia have the potential to inform clinical violence prediction and legal evaluations in the future

Imaging violence in schizophrenia: A systematic review and critical discussion of the MRI literature

Background: Persons with schizophrenia have a small but significant increase in risk of violence, which remains after controlling for known environmental risk factors. In vivo MRI-studies may point toward the biological underpinnings of psychotic violence, and neuroimaging has increasingly been used in forensic and legal settings despite unclear relevance. Objectives: (1) To present the first systematic review, following standardized guidelines, of MRI studies of violence with schizophrenia. (2) To critically discuss the promises and pitfalls of using this literature to understand violence in schizophrenia in clinical, forensic, and legal settings. Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines and literature searches until January 2018, we found 21 original studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria: (1) Studies of persons with schizophrenia, (2) a history of violence or aggressive behavior, (3) the use of one or more MRI-modalities (sMRI, DTI, fMRI). Results: The most consistent findings from the structural studies were reduced volumes of the hippocampus and the frontal lobe (in particular the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex) in schizophrenia patients with a history of violence or higher aggression scores. The functional studies mainly showed differences and aggression correlates in the frontal lobe and amygdala. However, the studies were methodologically heterogeneous, with four particular areas of concern: different definitions of violence, region of interest vs. whole-brain studies, small subject samples, and group comparisons in a heterogeneous diagnostic category (schizophrenia). Conclusion: The literature reports subtle, but inconsistent group level differences in brain structure and function associated with violence and aggression with schizophrenia, in particular in areas involved in the formation of psychosis symptoms and affective regulation. Due to methodological challenges the results should be interpreted with caution. In order to come closer to the neurobiological underpinnings of violence in schizophrenia future studies could: (1) address the neurobiological differences of premeditated and reactive violence, (2) use RDoC criteria, for example, or other symptom-based systems to categorize psychosis patients, (3) increase subject cohorts and apply new data driven methods. In this perspective, MRI-studies of violence in schizophrenia have the potential to inform clinical violence prediction and legal evaluations in the future