| dc.description.abstract | During the 16th and 17th Century, the Danish-Norwegian government criminalized homicide. This process meant increasingly sentencing murderers to death, which in turn demolished the elder medieval practice of solving homicides with the perpetrator paying fines to the king (called tegngjeld and fredkjøp) and negotiating a private settlement with the victim’s family. The practice of paying fines and compensation gradually faded during the 17th Century and where completely abolished nation-wide before entering the 18th Century. However, few studies in Norway have researched the way this gradual switch in punishment occurred during its last time of existence in the 1600s – exceptions being two regional studies of Agder and Oppland counties, and to some degree a third study of Finnmark County. This study has found that the 1620s marks a shift in the criminalizing-process in Rogaland County, where death penalties and outlawry from then on occurred more frequently than fines and compensation. This is similar to the findings from Oppland and Finnmark, but a contrast to Agder where fines and compensation dominated in the legal practice all the way up till the 1660s. At the same time, my analysis suggests that fines and compensation where completely abolished by that point, and thus full criminalization of homicide were accomplished. The shift was a top-down process – the state wanted harsh punishments for killers in order to secure Gods peace, while the families wanted to maintain old traditions of compensation and reconciliation. In the aftermath of the reformation, the Danish-Norwegian government found it increasingly important to eradicate sin and misbehaviour from society so that society as a whole would not suffer. In this way, the process resembles a power state. However, the shift from fines to executions took time where people’s attitudes and behaviour had to be changed over time – which in some sense resembles more of bargain state. Men where disciplined to turn away from the honour-culture, where engaging and winning violent fights was a great part of a man’s masculine self-identity. Executions stigmatised and shamed the killer, and homicides declined. | |