Overview

Morality was a dominant theme in the 1990s, but concerns about morality seem omnipresent in the first years of the third millennium. The year 2002 witnessed the greatest corporate scandals ever seen in the United States, with immense impact financially and in human terms. Sex scandals were pervasive among Catholic priests in the United States, disrupting the lives of thousands of abused children. In Scandinavia, moral debates and scandals are of a smaller magnitude, and more often related to questions about the handling of money by politicians.This volume takes an overarching look at the impact of such moral questions in the Nordic countries. Its approach is multi-disciplinarian, embracing philosophy, history, sociology, and political science. Based mainly upon a survey of representative samples in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, this unique study combines interview questions on crime and justice with moral questions concerning equality, confidence, tolerance, and also personal, social, religious, political, and national values. Bondeson first discusses the Nordic countries from a historical perspective and in statistical terms. She then presents interview data on the general sense of justice in Nordic countries, in particular exploring how much social and legal equality the Scandinavians have achieved in their welfare states. She touches upon criminal behavior and victimization, and discusses crime prevention and punishment. Bondeson also reviews the problems and methods of the study. Finally, she adds depth to the statistical analysis by using a number of indexes of morality. A trend analysis illustrates the stability of these attitudes over time.Nordic Moral Climates is an original empirical study of moral values in Scandinavia. It is one of the few comprehensive studies on this subject conducted in any nation or group of nations. The book will be of great interest to criminologists, sociologists, and social theorists.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ulla Bondeson
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Inc
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.521kg
ISBN:  

9781412806763

ISBN 10:   1412806763
Pages:   332
Publication Date:   15 April 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Figures, List of Tables, Foreword, Preface, Part I, 1. An Introduction to the Nordic Countries, 2. Theories of Law and Morality, Part II, 3. Outline of the Study on Nordic Moral Climates, 4. Equality and Confidence in Institutions, 5. Moral Justification and the Criminalization Structure, 6. Criminal Behavior and Victimization, 7. General Prevention and Punitiveness, Part III, 8. Tolerance and Social Values, 9. Political and National Values, 10. Personal and Religious Values, Part IV, 11. Constellation of Attitudes and Background Variables, 12. Postmaterialism, Age, and Punitiveness, 13. Analysis of Variance, European Values Study, and Trend Analysis, 14. Final Remarks, Appendix A: Sampling and Representativeness, Appendix B: Questionnaire, Bibliography, Index

Reviews

Ulla Bondeson's study of Nordic moral climates is an outstanding accomplishment. She raises a number of new questions and formulates significant theoretical issues in the study of morality in modern society. It will hardly be possible to engage in subsequent studies of moral climates without taking her conceptual distinctions and empirical findings into account. ---Erik Allardt Journal of the Nordic Sociological Association

Author Information

Nordic Moral Climates is an original empirical study of moral values in Scandinavia. It is one of the few comprehensive studies on this subject conducted in any nation or group of nations. The book will be of great interest to criminologists, sociologists, and social theorists. Ulla V. Bondeson has been professor of criminology at the University of Copenhagen since 1980 and was previously professor of sociology of law at Lund University. She has also been a guest professor at several American universities, including Harvard and Yale. She is the author of Prisoners in Prison Societies, available from Transaction.

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