The topic of this presentation is preventive detention and the rules for conditional release. The talk will include a discussion of the principal problems related to this penal sanction. The main focus will be the risk assessment of dangerous offenders who are being held in preventive detention.
The sanction of preventive detention was introduced in Norway in 2002. Consideration of community safety is the main rationale of the institution of preventive detention. This sanction is imposed by the court on dangerous and sane offenders when an ordinary time-limited prison sentence is considered insufficient for protecting the community. A precondition for being convicted to preventive detention is that the court considers that there is a substantial risk that the offender will again commit a serious crime.
Preventive detention is reserved for offenders who are considered dangerous, and where the dangerousness has already been manifested. Risk assessments therefore play an important role in the implementation of the sanction. The correctional services must continuously assess the risk of reoffending throughout the administration of the sentence. However, exactly how the risk assessment should be done and how relevant it should be in making decisions regarding, conditional release is unclear. The question of when a presumed dangerous offender no longer represents a serious danger to the community cannot be resolved by legal criteria alone. The rules of conditional release from preventive detention leave a large margin of discretion to the court. And the court has to rely on both legal and non-legal criteria in their decision-making.
The talk will depart from the legal framework for preventive detention and describe the legal premises for risk assessment in the context of preventive detention. Initially the legal framework of the sanction and the rules for conditional release, will be presented. Then a description of the legal criteria concerning assessment of risk of the offender committing a new serious crime, will follow. Thereafter the talk will contain a brief overview of how the risk assessment is made in Norway in connection with preventive detention. Finally, the talk will include a discussion of some of the challenges the system faces concerning risk assessment and the administration of preventive detention.