Nordic researchers have examined the trends fostering this punitive turn and how it has influenced the use of criminal justice sanctions, however, its impact on criminal law-making is yet to be studied empirically. Thus, this project aims to examine how the punitive turn in Denmark has influenced the legislative process in criminal law-making and impacted on substantive criminal law over the last four decades, from 1980 until 2019. While the core of the analysis is based on theoretical perspectives on criminal law including human rights, explanatory theories of crime control link this transformation in law-making to changes in society. Document analysis method is combined with the doctrinal legal research method to pursue the project’s empirical aim. Law-making under the punitive turn is happening without specific knowledge on its actual content and consequences. The project aims to fill in this gap in knowledge, which is highly relevant to Nordic criminology and legal research. It will also contribute to research-based criminal justice policy debates in the Nordic countries, including debates on the general principles in criminal law and principles of criminalization.

In January 2022 a panel of legal experts, practitioners and defence lawyers appointed by DJØF (the Danish lawyers’ trade union) presented a study on quality of legislation in the newspaper Jyllands posten. The study concludes that a majority of lawyers seem to observe a certain decrease in the quality of Danish legislation. One area of law, where this tendency in particular is observed, is criminal law.

The results of the DJØF-study can be related to a larger discussion in Denmark on a tendency towards more punishment and symbolic legislation, which not necessarily is aiming at solving the problem at hand based on knowledge and rationality, but to send a signal of political activism. It is not new that legal professionals – and in particular legal professionals in the field of criminal law – are warning that the results of the perceived tendencies are lower quality of legislation, lack of proportionality and a weakening of rule of law principles in the system of criminal justice.

In Nordic criminological and legal research literature, it is often argued that a rise of punitive populism took place in the 1990’ies. This phenomenon has been referred to as the ‘punitive turn, Nordic style’ (Lappi-Seppälä & Tonry, 2011, 28). Nordic researchers have examined the trends fostering this punitive turn and how it has influenced the use of criminal justice sanctions. However, its impact on criminal law-making is yet to be studied systematically and empirically. Thus, this project aims to examine whether and how the punitive turn, Nordic style has influenced the legislative process in Danish criminal law-making and impacted on substantive criminal law over the last four decades from 1980 until 2019, by answering the following research questions (RQ):

• RQ1) How many amendments have been added to the Danish criminal law in the period 1980 until 2019?
• RQ2) How have the elements of the legislative process developed during the period 1980 until 2019?
• RQ3) How has the punitive turn influenced the substance of criminal law-making during the period 1980 until 2019