Nils Christie 1928–2015

Abstract

Professor Nils Christie suddenly passed away 27 May 2015. Christie was born in 24 February 1928. After the Second World War, he worked for a period as journalist before entering academia in 1946. He completed his doctoral degree in 1959 and became Norway’s first professor of criminology in 1966 at the University of Oslo. For more than half a century, Christie was not only a leading intellectual figure in criminology, but also an active participant in public discourse. He is the founding father of Norwegian criminology, which he made internationally renowned. He published 15 books which have been translated into more than 20 languages. He also took part in establishing the Scandinavian Research Council for Criminology in 1962. From 1979 to 1982 he chaired the Council. The establishment of criminology in Scandinavia was not without its conflicts and debates. The emerging criminology spearheaded by Christie quickly emancipated itself from the expectations to be an auxiliary science for criminal law and policy. In an article from 1987, Christie described the process in this manner: