Penal-welfare and youth pockets: A historical case study of the indeterminate youth prison sanction in Denmark.

This article examines the Danish Youth Prison Sanction (YPS), a relatively indeterminate penal measure in force from 1933 to 1973, as a case study of "pockets of punitiveness" within the Nordic welfare state. It traces the YPS’s historical origins, development, and resilience, highlighting how its coercive confinement practices were deeply embedded in welfare governance and shaped by prevailing social scientific ideas about youth deemed at risk, particularly working-class males. Although the YPS was formally part of the penal system, its punitive features were often obscured by welfare rationales emphasizing rehabilitation and protection, resulting in longer and more uncertain sentences than those for adults. The study argues that such punitive practices are not isolated exceptions but structurally integrated elements of Danish welfare governance, with similar coercive approaches persisting in secure social institutions after the YPS’s abolition. This analysis challenges simplistic narratives of Nordic welfare benevolence by revealing the complex, historically rooted entanglement of punishment and welfare in youth crime control.