Denmark - Stiffer sentences proposed for burglars, rapists and gangsters

OFF THE WIRE
Jennifer Buley
 cphpost.dk
'Security package' provides longer prison terms and extra resources for anti-organised crime unit
A new deal signed by the government, the Danish People’s Party (DF), and the Christian Democrats (KD) aims to combat house burglary and other violations by doubling the length of prison sentences and increasing funding for police efforts to fight organised criminal rings.
The so-called ‘security package’ (Tryghedspakken) agreed to last weekend followed parallel negotiations between the government, DF and KD, in which DF secured provisions for tougher criminal punishments and permanent customs agents on Denmark’s borders with Germany and Sweden in exchange for supporting the government’s 2020 budget reform plan, which includes dramatic cuts to the early retirement programme.
The main provisions of the safety pack are a doubling of the length of prison sentences for convicted burglars and rapists and a tripling of the length of sentences for convicted criminals with organised crime connections.
In addition, the deal provides an additional 140 million kroner for existing police programmes aimed at fighting organised crime. A special department located in western Denmark aimed at fighting gangs and organised crime is also a part of the package.
The deal is estimated to cost a total of 270 million kroner, and its requirement of longer prison terms will put pressure on the national prison system, reports metroXpress newspaper.
“In the last few years we have seen examples of flagrant house robberies and break-ins by organised criminal gangs,” Lars Barfoed, the justice minister, said in a press announcement on Sunday. “They are a serious threat to security at home.”
The finance minister, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, said that the security package sent a clear message to organised criminals.
“It’s a bad day for anyone with a biker patch on their vest or a crowbar in their bag,” Frederiksen said. “We won’t put up with gangs of thieves touring our neighbourhoods in vans, or bikers and gang members making streets unsafe.”
But crime experts were less certain that the security package would have the deterring effect the government and DF claimed. Professor and sociologist Michael Hviid Jacobsen said longer prison sentences had never been shown to lower crime.
“Harsher punishment doesn’t have any effect by itself,” Jacobsen told metroXpress. “We can see that from the USA, where they have tried very long prison sentences. If you don’t solve the underlying social problems and reasons for criminality, harsher punishment is nothing more than treating the symptoms.”
The security package deal will be put to a vote before politicians break for their summer holidays in July, according to DF. The opposition Social Democrats were ready to approve the deal, while the Social Liberals called it “totally unpalatable”.