What the rest of the world can learn from Norway's prison system

Mar 26, 2019

The inside of a cell is seen at the Halden prison in the far southeast of Norway in this picture taken in 2010, released on July 27, 2011. Halden jail could house Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik, who killed at least 76 people in last Friday's bomb attack and shooting spree, for decades, according to media reports. Breivik's lawyer said on Tuesday his client appeared to be a madman, but it was too early to say if Breivik would plead insanity at his trial, expected to be a year away. Picture taken in 2010. REUTERS/Trond A. Isaksen (NORWAY - Tags: CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) - GM1E77S0F3201

Norway has proven that prison can be rehabiliative. Image: REUTERS/Trond A. Isaksen

Manudeep Bhuller

Tenure-Track Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Oslo

Gordon Dahl

Professor of Economics, University of California

Katrine V. Løken

Professor of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics

Magne Mogstad

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Chicago

Explore and monitor how Justice and Law is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Justice and Law

Note: The Western European countries used to construct the population-weighted average include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Image: Institute for Criminal Policy Research, World Prison Brief (2016).

Sample consists of 160 countries with population greater than 0.5 million and with available data on incarceration and GDP. Incarceration rates and GDP are for the latest available year. GDP per capita is adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) and reported in 2010 US dollars. The Western European countries used to construct the population-weighted average include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Image: Institute for Criminal Policy Research, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.