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Nils Christie

Bio: Nils Christie is an academic researcher from University of Oslo. The author has contributed to research in topics: Punishment & Crime control. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 32 publications receiving 2796 citations.

Papers
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DOI
31 Jul 2004

1 citations

DOI
Nils Christie1
01 Apr 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the large numbers of prisoners are hampering the message in cases where the country goes to war to create freedom elsewhere, and that any increases in the prison population can be used as a warning signal against political developments.
Abstract: The author of the article, a member of Faculty of Law herself, begins by presenting the two absolute theories of punishment: the one claiming that punishment is necessary, and the opposite theory calling for no punishments at all. There are other theories mentioned as well, such as those created by social scientists who brought up the questions regarding the actual effects of imprisonment. The author then presents the main concept of the article: prisons are institutions created in order to inflict pain and suffering on human beings, which is ethically unacceptable. The author argues that the large numbers of prisoners are hampering the message in cases where the country goes to war to create freedom elsewhere. In her opinion, the low prison rates within welfare states might be seen as arguments for such states, in contrast to those that give free reign to market liberalism. Moreover, it seems to be clear that any increases in the prison population can be used as a warning signal against political developments.

Cited by
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Book
08 Jan 2007
TL;DR: A list of abbreviations for the bus can be found in this paper, where the authors discuss the California political economy, crime, croplands, and capitalism, and what is to be done.
Abstract: Preface and Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Prologue: The Bus 1. Introduction 2. The California Political Economy 3. The Prison Fix 4. Crime, Croplands, and Capitalism 5. Mothers Reclaiming Our Children 6. What Is to Be Done? Epilogue: Another Bus Notes

1,061 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1986
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented a lecture on the topic "Society and the victim" where they asked participants to write down a few words from their personal histories as a victim, not for my use but for their own.
Abstract: It is often useful within the social sciences to rely on personal experiences, or at least take this as our point of departure. So, given the challenge to lecture on the topic “Society and the victim,” I started out with some reflections on my own past history. Had I ever been a victim, and if so, when and how? And I will ask you in this audience to engage in the same exercise. Have you ever been victims? When was that? Where was it? What characterized the situation? How did you react? How did your surroundings react? Maybe I could ask you to scribble down just a few words from your own personal histories as a victim, not for my use, but for your own. Such personal memories might prove valuable during my presentation, and particularly during our later discussions.

740 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a set of optimistic propositions and pessimistic claims about restorative justice by contemplating the global diversity of its practice are made. Examination of both the optimistic and the pessimistic propositions sheds light on prospects for Restorative justice, and the optimistic propositions may be more useful for preventing crime in a normatively acceptable way than existing criminal law jurisprudence and explanatory theory.
Abstract: For informal justice to be restorative justice, it has to be about restoring victims, restoring offenders, and restoring communities as a result of participation of a plurality of stakeholders. This means that victim-offender mediation, healing circles, family group conferences, restorative probation, reparation boards on the Vermont model, whole school antibullying programs, Chinese Bang Jiao programs, and exit conferences following Western business regulatory inspections can at times all be restorative justice. Sets of both optimistic propositions and pessimistic claims can be made about restorative justice by contemplating the global diversity of its practice. Examination of both the optimistic and the pessimistic propositions sheds light on prospects for restorative justice. Regulatory theory (a responsive regulatory pyramid) may be more useful for preventing crime in a normatively acceptable way than existing criminal law jurisprudence and explanatory theory. Evidence-based reform must move toward a ...

525 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the emerging pre-crime society, crime is conceived essentially as risk or potential loss, ordering practices are pre-emptive and security is a commodity sold for profit as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Conventionally, crime is regarded principally as harm or wrong and the dominant ordering practices arise post hoc. In the emerging pre-crime society, crime is conceived essentially as risk or potential loss, ordering practices are pre-emptive and security is a commodity sold for profit. Though this dichotomy oversimplifies a more complex set of changes, it captures an important temporal shift. As the intellectual offspring of the post-crime society, criminology must adapt to meet the challenges of pre-crime and security. This article examines the key features a theory of security needs to encompass. It explores the immanent capacities of criminology for change and suggests exterior intellectual resources upon which it might draw. It concludes that the pre-crime society need not be a post-criminological one.

417 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines the roots of penal exceptionalism in Finland, Norway and Sweden, arguing that it emerges from the cultures of equality that existed in these countries which were then embedded in their social fabrics through the universalism of the Scandinavian welfare state.
Abstract: This is the fi rst of a two-part paper on penal exceptionalism in Scandinavia — that is, low rates of imprisonment and humane prison conditions. Part I examines the roots of this exceptionalism in Finland, Norway and Sweden, arguing that it emerges from the cultures of equality that existed in these countries which were then embedded in their social fabrics through the universalism of the Scandinavian welfare state.

390 citations