A Storm in Denmark’s Judicial Policy or a Storm in a Teacup? An Analysis of the Council of Youth Delinquency
The passing of the Law on Combating Juvenile Delinquency in late 2018 showed a significant shift in Danish judicial policy as a new Council on Youth Crime was erected. In the preliminary hearings, the Law was met with harsh criticism from judicial experts, theorists and policy institutes, yet it was passed by a wide majority with very minor changes. Theorists have described the law as politicians adopting a neomodern approach to fighting crime in which the symbolism of being tough on crime is more important than being efficient.
This master’s thesis uses a historical and theoretical framework about the late modern paradigm of judicial politics to examine the passing and implementation of the Law. The paper explores the background and reasoning behind this arguably radical shift in fighting youth crime as well as the readily apparent difficulties in executing the law effectively.
In conclusion, the thesis paper finds that the Law so far has failed to meet its proposed targets. Instead, it has complicated and further bureaucratized the treatment of mentally ill children. It remains to be seen if the Law has had any positive effects in fighting youth crime.