riminal justice and the penalty system in Denmark - a short introduction

1.Very briefly about Denmark - lexical data

criminal justice penitentiary denmark

Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and Denmark form together Nordic Countries. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are also Nordic but not counted as independent countries. Since the Danish/Norwegian Vikings conquered as well Iceland as Greenland and the Faroe Islands in the period from 800 to 1200 there has been strong connections and to some degree Danish dominance over those areas. In 1944 Iceland became independent. Greenland and the Faroe Islands have a so-called home rule system, which includes own national administration, schools etc. They both have national criminal laws and enalty institutions, but they do not ave Ministries of Justice as Justice affairs are decided in Denmark and laws are decided in the Danish Parliament, where Greenland and the Faroe Islands have two members each.

In the following by Denmark is meant the kingdom with 5,25 million inhabitants on an area of 43.000 square meters, i.e. without Greenland and Faroe Islands. Since 1972 Queen Mar- grethe II has been holding the throne.

The biggest part is a peninsula, Jutland, on the “top” of Germany. In addition there are more than 400 islands, out of which 80 are inhabited. The biggest Island is Sealand, where the capital, Copenhagen, with its 1,75 million inhabitants (including suburbs) is located.

Denmark had its' first Constitution in 1849. It has been revised a few times. The Parliament has one chamber and 175 members elected in Denmark plus the above mentioned two members from respectively Greenland and Faroe Islands.

Denmark was a member of the United Nations since the foundation in 1945. In 1949 Denmark entered into NATO and in the same year Denmark was one of the founding nations for the European Council. Ukraine became a member of the European Council in 1995. 1953 Denmark ratified the European Convention for Human Rights. Denmark became a member of the Common Market in 1973 (now EU) after a referendum where 63.5 % of the electors voted for it. The UN Convention for the Rights of the Child was ratified in 1991 and the European convention for Human Rights was incorporated i 1992.

It is not uncommon in Denmark that the government rules on the basis of less than 50% of the votes in the Parliament. This implicates the necessity of cooperation and consensus in policy making. What crime policy concerns this was not a problem until the beginning of the 1990'ies. Before that time crime policy was not only based on political consensus it was also closely connected to scientific experience end evidence. But in the latest two decades the forming of the crime policy has been moved away from the experts into the hands of the politicians. Crime policy has even become an issue in the campaigns before political elections. The agencies of the criminal justice system such as prisons, police, courts and the probation service are all run by the state. For further information see Storgaard, 2013

As for legal tradition Denmark belongs to the so-called continental legal- family together with the other Nordic Countries but also with continental Europe in a very broad sense.

2.Investigation and prosecution

Investigation of crime is carried out by the police who are divided in 12 districts. Each district has its own director. The Commissioner of Police is the national head of the police and responsible to the Minister of Justice.

Prosecution is carried out by the prosecutors, who are lawyers. The prosecutors are divided in a hierarchy of three levels. The Director of Public Prosecution, i.e. his staff of lawyers, is prosecutor in the Supreme Court, the Public Prosecutor, i.e. his staff of lawyers, is prosecuting cases before one of the two High Courts and finally the staff of the District Attorney is prosecuting cases in the 24 city courts. There is neither an Administrative court nor a Constitutional court in Denmark. There is, however a special court for shipping and trade matters.

The Police Director is not only the head of the police but also the head of the prosecutors in city courts. Consequently investigation and prosecution are not formally separated.

It is explicitly laid down in the Constitution § 65.2 that lay judges must be included in criminal court procedure. The Administration of Justice Act defines the scope and the competences of the lay judges.

Suspects may be arrested by the police but must be released no later than after 24 hours if they are not taken into pre-trial prison, which must be decided in the court. The decision of taking a suspect into pre-trial prison may be taken for at period of maximum four weeks at a time. The total duration of pre-trial imprisonment is limited to one year for adults and 8 months for suspects below the age of 18 years. These time limits may be prolonged by the court under special conditions. The court may decide that a period in pretrial prison in full length or a part of it shall take place in solitary confinement. If the suspect is below the age of 18 years the reasons to place the person under solitary confinement must be extra strong and only in cases concerning the security of the state may solitary confinement be prolonged for more than four weeks. For adults the maximum (if the court does not see special reasons) period of solitary confinement is 6 months in continuum, except for cases concerning the security of the state. Storgaard, 2010, The Administration of Justice Act and the UN Convention for the rights of the Child

3.The prison Structure and alternatives to imprisonment

There are two main penalties defined in the Criminal Law § 31 namely fines and imprisonment. In general punishment is imposed by the courts and executed by The Department of Corrections under the responsibility of the Minister of Justice. Except for of mentally ill offenders and the main part of the juvenile offenders (below 18) any detention connected to criminality in Denmark takes place in institutions ruled and controlled by The Department of Corrections under the responsibility of the Minister of Justice.

The two main categories of penal institutions are the custodies (pre-trial- prisons), which are located near by the court-buildings and may house persons waiting for the trial as well as convicted persons either serving a relatively short sentence (6 months or less) or waiting for a place in a prison, and the prisons, which are solely housing convicted persons serving a sentence. In the custodies there are about 1000 places totally in the country, whereas there is a total of about 3000 places in the prisons.

The custodies are always high- security institutions with perimeter- walls, electronic monitoring and when a prisoner spends time in fresh air this is under strict control. The prisons are divided into open and closed prisons. Closed prisons are of same security degree as the custodies, whereas open prisons (mainly located in the countryside) do not have visible borders to the outside world.

While the courts decide the length of the prison-sentence, the type and location of prison is decided by the Department of Corrections. The decision about where a sentence must be served must be made within the framework of §§ 20-30 of the Corrections Act, where guidelines for the choice of institution and the transfer of prisoners from one institution to another are laid down. More than 90 % of all prison-intakes are in open prisons.

The Danish penalty system as a whole includes two different “alternatives” to imprisonment.

Firstly Community Service Orders The Criminal Law chapter 8. which were introduced in the 1980'ies. Community Service is delivering unaid labour for a specific number of ours (between 30 and 300), which is decided in the court. The court imposes a Community Service Order in the form of a conditional prison-sentence, the offender is sentenced to imprisonment but on the condition that he does not commit new crime in the probation time and that he delivers the number of work-hours he will not go to prison. The Probations Service is in charge of control, work-arrangements etc.

Secondly there is the electronic curfew, which was introduced gradually from the beginning of the 2000'ies. The curfew is organised differently: after having been sentenced to unconditional imprisonment for up till 5 months the offender can apply in the Department of Corrections for the chance to serve the sentence in his home with the curfew round his ankle. This implicates that the person as long as the length of the sentence must carry the curfew. This makes it possible for the probation service to control that he does not leave his home without permission.

Community Service as well as the curfew makes it possible for the offender to go to work, take care of his family and still be firmly limited in relation to committing new crime.

4.The legal frames of sentencing in general

Comprehensively prison sentences may be from 7 days to 16 years, and in some exceptional cases up to 20 years. In some cases, e.g. for murder and arson a sentence to life-time imprisonment is a possibility. Juveniles belowПублічне право № 4 (16) (2014) the age of 18 cannot be sentenced to life-time imprisonment. Furthermore the Criminal Code contents a possibility to sentence a person to secure imprisonment, which does not have a legal maximum.

Fines are imposed as day-fines between one and 60. The day-fine-system aims at making the punishment socially just as the number of fines is decided on the ground of the crime committed, whereas the sum per day mirrors the ability to pay for the offender, i.e. rich offenders pay more than poor offenders.

Closing remarks

This was the first of a number of small introductions to the Danish penalty system. In the following issues of this journal you will find equal brief introductory articles. But in the future we will go more in depth of one topic. Future topics might be for instance: Prisoners' rights, Juvenile Justice, The Probation Service, sentencing, crime development or others. If somebody has uestions or suggestions please turn irectly to me and I will try to include the aspects.

Список використаних джерел

1. Storgaard, Anette: Denmark in Crime and Punishment around the World, ed. By Aebi, Marcelo F. et al. 2010. California

2. Storgaard, Anette: Denmark in Long-Term imprisonment and Humans Rights, ed. By Drenkhahn, Kirstin et.al. 2014. Routledge.

3. The Administration of Justice Act, nr 1139 of 24/09/2013

4. The Criminal Law, LBK nr 871 of 04/07/2014

5. The Corrections Act, LBK nr 435 of 15/05/2012

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