[The Dissolution of Core Values: Development of Crime and Society in Postwar Scandinavia with an Emphasis on Norwegian Circumstances] "...Postwar Social Development...If one looks back on Norway's near postwar period--the 1950s--we had a homogeneous and stable society. The Labour Party had a clear majority in the Parliament, we had full employment, and a wide stratum of the population enjoyed a gradual increase in prosperity. A modern welfare state with increasingly better social security was beginning to take form. The use of private automobiles was limited to only those granted public permits, and television was an unknown American phenomenon that we read about or saw in films. Criminality was under control, the public trusted the police and the courts, mother was at home taking care of her children, and marriages usually lasted a lifetime. The situation was roughly the same in Denmark, and Sweden--which had not experienced the German occupation--epitomized this pattern of development.
From the mid-1960s, a development started which continued at least through the mid-1990s and has brought the Scandinavian countries out of their state of innocence, for better and for worse. I shall concentrate on some of the more destructive signs of this trend which, in my opinion, outweigh the positive. I am aware that my analysis is controversial and that others will place emphasis on the more hopeful aspects of this development. Many seem to be of the opinion that our society is constantly moving forward in a positive direction and they call those of us with other opinions "romantic nostalgics." One can live with this label. Time cannot be turned back, but this does not mean that the course ahead should not be adjusted.
Between 1965 and about 1995, criminality in Scandinavia more than quintupled, even after adjusting for population growth.(n3) During these thirty years, I have witnessed the face of crime change. In the beginning of the period, thefts and burglaries seemed to play a predominant role. Although theft still predominates, violence has since increased in dimension. It is also my impression that within individual crime categories, there has been a steady transition toward harder criminality. Violence is more brutal than before. It is more often unprovoked, affecting completely innocent victims, and increasingly includes the use of knives and firearms. To understand this increase in criminality, it is necessary to consider that narcotics were introduced to Scandinavia in the 1960s, beginning with cannabis and expanding to a wide spectrum of drugs such as hashish, heroin, amphetamines, and cocaine. Use of narcotics is in itself a crime, and it generates other crime.
But it is not only the increase in crime that is troublesome throughout this period; another series of alarming tendencies has also increased. From 1970 to 1988, the suicide rate for young men in Norway doubled,(n4) an alarming sign that something is wrong in the society's development. The frequency of divorce quadrupled from 1960 to 1990.(n5) When interpreting this increase, one must, in addition, consider the fact that in the second half of this period, cohabitation significantly increased at the expense of marriage. While it is undoubtedly known that cohabitation is less stable than ordinary marriage,(n6) thirty-nine percent of the children born in Norway in 1995 were born to such informal cohabitations.(n7)
I shall not tire you with the details of these dismal patterns in the social development of Scandinavia during these years. Instead, I shall simply mention a few others, such as increases in mental disorders, eating disorders among young females in particular, prescription medicine abuse, and alcohol abuse. There is more than enough over which to philosophize regarding the background of this alarming development. In parenthesis please note that what I call a "dismal pattern" in Scandinavia may be just a pale shimmer of much worse trends in the social development of the United States. But such development is, nevertheless, interesting to note in an evaluation of the Scandinavian welfare states, which in international debate are often described as idyllic and equalized model societies. The causes of these developments will nevertheless stem from partly national or regional roots." Rieber-Mohn G. The Dissolution of Core Values: Development of Crime and Society in Postwar Scandinavia with an Emphasis on Norwegian Circumstances. Brigham Young University Law Review. December 1998;1998(4):1629.
Who cares what I think? What does God say?
