Contrasts in Punishment: An Explanation of Anglophone Excess and Nordic Exceptionalism

Abstract

CONTRASTS IN PUNISHMENT: AN EXPLANATION OF ANGLOPHONE EXCESS AND NORDIC EXCEPTIONALISM Pratt, J. and Eriksson, A. (2013). Abingdon: Routledge. 272 pp. (hbk) 90.00 [pounds sterling], ISBN 978-0415-52473-5 As academics and practitioners become increasingly frustrated at the punitive criminal justice policy and the condemnatory public discourse around offending in the UK, they are inclined to look to the Scandinavian nations as examples of an alternative approach. Pratt and Eriksson's excellent book provides a detailed account of these differences in approach to criminal justice, locating penal policy in a social and historical context. The book provides hope to Anglophone penal reformers in identifying a different approach but also highlights the scale of the task; the punitive penal policy in Anglophone countries has such strong social and historical roots that it is difficult to see how any significant change could come easily or quickly. A refreshing aspect of 'Contrasts in Punishment' is how little attention is paid to American influences, with discussion of the Anglophone countries concentrating on England, New Zealand and Australia. This focus means that the material presented feels fresh, interesting and original and provides the authors with a structure to discuss penal approaches without simply highlighting the relative degrees of American influence on each nation. This starts in the introduction where a discussion of recent prison builds in two nations highlights their differences in penal policy. In Norway, a prison is built that has exercise facilities, space for family visits and that looks like the outside world. In New Zealand, every expense is spared as prisoners are required to build their own cells from shipping containers. The photographs, used in the introduction and then sparingly throughout the book, are welcome illustrations of the differences the authors describe. Chapter one sets out the differences in punishment between the Anglophone countries and the Nordic countries of Finland, Norway and Sweden. When set out in this clear and structured way, the extent of these differences is strikingly obvious; the Nordic countries have much lower rates of imprisonment and treat their prisoners very differently. Nordic countries utilise smaller prisons, promote a higher quality of prison life and provide greater opportunities for work and education. Prison officers in the Nordic countries are trained in a different way, relate to prisoners with greater courtesy and less professional distance, and even look different, in terms of the uniforms they wear. These observations of the prison systems are the result of the authors' meticulous research--they toured forty prisons--and are presented in an engaging way. The two contrasting weekly menus, with weights and quantities recorded on the New Zealand menu but not the Finnish version, strongly and visually illustrate much wider differences in philosophy and approach. Although the description of the differences between Anglophone and Nordic countries is interesting and engaging, it is the authors' analysis of the reasons for this that sets this book apart. They accept the cultural and structural differences noted by other scholars but suggest that these present as many questions as answers: why did cultural and structural differences emerge? …