Suchergebnisse

In this article, my contention is that Norway's criminal justice policy is increasingly based on principles taken from positive criminology. This means that the correctional service places strong emphasis on establishing collaboration with the local authorities (the municipalities) in order to offer convicted persons integrated services, both during and after serving their sentences. I also point out that positive criminology's principle of viewing convicted persons as unique individuals with individual problems and resources – problems to which there are rarely clear-cut solutions – means that these problems are perceived as 'wicked problems'. A recommended approach to 'wicked problems' is to establish collaboration between the different service providers involved. The article describes the experiences gained from a pilot project that entailed offering a training programme to convicted persons with substance abuse problems. One of the goals of the project was to link the programme to an offer of integrated services after the sentence had been served. The experiences described in semi-structured interviews with 16 convicted persons, seven correctional service employees and three local authority employees was that it was difficult to put in place such an integrated service package. On this basis, I discuss the reasons why it was so difficult to achieve the desired collaboration, and I outline some proposals for how these challenges can be resolved in future.

This article addresses questions about health authorities' recommendations on the local organisation of services for people with mental health disorders in Norway. Analysis is made of the dynamic relationship between different evaluations, national guidelines and other knowledge that influence the organisation of services. The analysis is based upon documents about how recommendations by health authorities have shifted during a period of 15 years. The relationship between policy guidelines, the role of scientific evidence and practical organisational models is characterised by ambiguity and pragmatism. Some theoretical implications of these findings and uses of knowledge in different policy areas are discussed.

This article aims to study how Norwegian county governors (CGs) performed their coordination tasks shortly after the lockdown in March by emphasizing the use of the County Emergency Council (CEC) as a meeting arena for coordination in times of crisis management more generally and the challenges the CGs had to face in this particular situation. We ask (1) what kind of meeting arena is the CEC and (2) how does the CEC as a meeting arena facilitate coordination at this level of government? In order to analyze the dynamics of the CEC meetings, we will refer to two theoretical approaches, i.e., meetings science and coordination. The present study is based upon an exploratory research strategy to analyze how the CGs responded to the challenges and performed coordination through the CEC. We found that the CEC meetings could be seen as hybrids of organization, institution and network, and even a network of networks, where several CG offices established thematic networks. These smaller networks have the advantage of establishing personal relationships more easily than the larger networks; however, they may lack the comprehensive overview that is necessary in a crisis that cuts across sectors.