SELECTED THESES ON THE CIRCUMPOLAR ARCTIC

Few people around the world are familiar with Greenland's criminal justice system. Very little has been written about it in either English or Danish, and the present effort represents the first detailed work on the subject. The thesis begins with a short description of Greenland's history. This is followed by an examination of the administration of justice and the criminal code and how it is applied in Greenland today. In the last few years, the criminal code has been criticized for 'being too lenient', and with examples from the court practice the thesis illustrates the sources of this critique. The thesis describes Greenland's special 'prison' system, the amount of crime and crime patterns, and discusses the causes of crime in Greenland. It also analyses the formal cooperation among schools, social services, police and prison services in their attempts to facilitate crime prevention. Aboriginal spokespersons in North America have pointed out that the model for the administration of justice in Greenland provides an alternative model to the justice system used in America and Canada. However, a close examination of the operation of the criminal justice system under the Criminal Code suggests that Greenland's criminal policy is as much influenced by existing measures and economic resources as by cultural factors.