Confinement as Prevention? Youth across Penal and Social Institutions in the Danish Welfare State
Confinement as Prevention? Youth across Penal and Social Institutions in the Danish Welfare State
Navn på bevillingshaver
Lea Cecilie Brinkgaard
Titel
PhD fellow, External lecturer
Institution
Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo
Beløb
DKK 1,877,623
År
2026
Bevillingstype
Internationalisation Fellowships
Hvad?
This project examines how preventive ideals and confinement practices have co-evolved in Danish youth crime control from the 20th century to the present. It challenges the common view of preventive measures as merely benevolent by exploring how such ideals have shaped and legitimized disproportionate youth confinement in criminal justice and child welfare institutions, historically and today.
Hvorfor?
While the limits of the punitive state have been extensively studied, the powers and limitations of the preventive state require closer historical scrutiny. This project addresses this gap and traces the historical trajectory of preventive youth confinement, which shapes youth confinement measures today, emphasizing the need to safeguard the rights of confined youth in current and future reforms.
Hvordan?
The project analyzes official records and case files from three institutional sites, both within and beyond prison walls. Drawing on these analyses and combining welfare history and prison studies, the study develops an inter-institutional framework that captures the impact of preventive ideals on institutional practices and the everyday lives of confined youth in the Danish welfare state.