The NOReoffend project seeks to advance the state-of-the-art on the intended and unintended consequences of punishment, using Norway as a case study. Norway and other Scandinavian countries are considered guiding stars in the world of criminal corrections, yet remarkably little is known about the effects of punishment in Norway – at least if we look through a lens of causality and quantitative rigor.
The NOReoffend project draws on theories from criminology, sociology, psychology, and economics that speak to the myriad impacts of punishment on short- and long-term life outcomes. The project combines population-wide register data and experimental and quasi-experimental techniques to disentangle these processes empirically.
Three more specific objectives guide the project. Firstly, NOReoffend will evaluate previous reforms in Norwegian corrections to identify the causal effects of various sentences, programs, and staffing policies on reoffending and reintegration. These analyses will contribute to the international literatures on the effects of imprisonment on reoffending and extralegal outcomes such as employment and family. Secondly, NOReoffend will develop, implement, and evaluate the first-ever randomized controlled trial(s) of programs designed to reduce reoffending and promote reintegration in the Norwegian setting. This will provide much-needed insight into fundamental theoretical questions about the impacts of imprisonment and broaden current evaluation practices in Norwegian corrections. Finally, the project will empirically investigate what happens to post-release outcomes when Norwegian correctional principles are implemented in the American context. This will test the generalizability of the Norwegian approach and provide evidence that supports – or challenges – much of the rhetoric surrounding Scandinavian penal practices.
