Punishment in Specific Cases - Focus Groups, 2009

"Punishment in Specific Cases - Focus groups" is part of the larger project "Attitudes Towards Punishment in Nordic Countries" which is a joint project that was planned and implemented in Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Sweden in 2009. The purpose of focus groups was to gain greater insight into how people who have no occupational or educational associations with the criminal justice system think or argue if they should justify why they think a particular punishment is "appropriate" as punishment for a specific criminal offense. In a group context, each participant should state the punishment he / she considered appropriate and justify his or her choice of punishment. Participants discussed the reasons that should be given when deciding appropriate punishment in a specific criminal case. As an introduction to the discussion, the group watched a short DVD movie (15 - 25 minutes) of a court hearing on a criminal case.