The aim of the ULTPEN project was to study Norway’s sanction of indefinite preventive detention and to understand its development, use, and impact over the first 20 years since it was introduced in 2002. Indefinite preventive detention is the most severe penalty in Norwegian law. It can be imposed on people convicted of serious violent and sexual offences when an ordinary prison sentence is considered insufficient to protect society. It combines punishment with preventive elements, and because it can be extended indefinitely it can, in principle, mean lifelong detention – an informal life sentence.
First, we examined its history, rationale, and practice, comparing it with similar measures internationally. While Norway is often praised for its humane justice system, our findings show that preventive detention has developed into a more punitive, security-driven sanction than intended. Sentences have become longer, opportunities for rehabilitation are shrinking, and release conditions are more restrictive. Norway’s indefinite preventive detention has even been imposed on children, raising serious concerns about human rights. ULTPEN highlights a striking gap between the stated goals of policy and the reality of implementation, deepened by under-resourcing and limited political or public scrutiny. Far from being a symbol of Nordic ‘penal exceptionalism’, indefinite preventive detention reflects a broader global trend towards risk-based punishment.
Secondly, in partnership with KRUS, we developed a national dataset capturing all individuals sentenced to preventive detention between 2002 and 2022. This provided a comprehensive overview of who is subject to the sanction, their offences, sentence progression, release, and reconviction outcomes. Nearly half of indefinite preventive detention sentences were imposed for sexual offences, and most people sentenced had prior convictions. As of January 2022, half remained in prison, predominantly in high-security facilities. In addition, in collaboration with the PriSUD project, we examined mental health disorders among people serving indefinite preventive detention. We found high levels of severe, complex disorders, even compared with others in prison convicted of serious violent and sexual offences but not sentenced to preventive detention. Almost everyone sentenced to indefinite preventive detention had a diagnosed mental health condition, and nearly three-quarters had a severe disorder. Many also had multiple psychiatric conditions. This marks this group as particularly vulnerable in Norway’s prisons, with complex health needs that far exceed those of other incarcerated populations.
Finally, through in-depth interviews with 40 people serving preventive detention, we explored their lived experience. Many described childhoods marked by trauma, neglect, instability or substance misuse, shaping their criminal pathways. Serving an indefinite sentence brought particular psychological pains: uncertainty about release, repeated risk assessments, loss of autonomy, isolation and powerlessness. These accounts revealed the profound human impact of indefinite detention, and how it undermines identity, well-being, and rehabilitation. While some developed coping strategies through education, relationships and rehabilitation programmes, many described serving the sanction as uniquely stressful compared with ordinary prison terms. In addition, in collaboration with the University of Oslo, eight individuals were also interviewed after release. The process of reintegration was also often fraught with difficulties. Several participants described parole supervision as more burdensome than prison itself, characterized by strict controls, surveillance, and mistrust.
Taken together, ULTPEN documents a widening gap between the formal aims of preventive detention – rehabilitation and reintegration – and its punitive reality. It also shows that those serving the sanction are among the most vulnerable in the prison system, with high levels of trauma and mental health diagnoses. Although introduced to protect society, the sanction raises important questions about proportionality, human rights, and whether it fulfils promises of rehabilitation and reintegration. ULTPEN contributes to international debates on life imprisonment, punishment, and risk management. It challenges the idea that Norway is wholly exceptional, situating indefinite preventive detention within a global trend toward risk-based punishment. At the same time, it opens space for reform: improving rehabilitation opportunities, addressing mental health needs, and implementing prison and release systems that genuinely support reintegration. In short, ULTPEN shows that Norway’s ultimate penalty has grown more punitive over time, impacts a vulnerable prison population and calls for renewed scrutiny, reform, and debate on the often-hidden realities of informal life sentences nationally and internationally.
ULTPEN has established itself as the first national study on the implementation and impact of forvaring, marking a significant contribution to academic knowledge and advancing theoretical understanding of Norway’s most severe sanction. It has already begun to shape Norwegian penology and is influencing wider ethnographic, sociological and psychological research on the implementation and impact of indefinite imprisonment or informal life imprisonment. Through the generation of new empirical data and critical insights, ULTPEN is actively informing national and international academic discussions on how societies respond to the most serious crimes. Moreover, the project has engaged with policymakers, practitioners and service users, providing evidence-based recommendations and output aimed at reforming policies related to informal life sentences. These outcomes and impacts have been realized through a combination of rigorous research methodologies, peer-reviewed publications, academic presentations and targeted dissemination strategies that have reached both the national and international scholarly community as well as key stakeholders and practitioners working in the field of ultimate penalties.
Indefinite preventive detention – or forvaring – is the ultimate penalty in Norwegian law. Introduced in 2002, the sanction is both punitive – it provides punishment (a term of imprisonment) for the offence, and preventive – it keeps the offender away from society as long as they are deemed to be a risk to the public. The use of forvaring has increased over recent years, and the forvaring prison population has grown from 21 prisoners in 2002 to 132 in January 2020. Furthermore, international interest in the use of forvaring as the ultimate sanction in Norway has escalated since the sentencing in 2012 of the mass murderer Anders Breivik. Yet there has been no comprehensive study on the implementation and impact of this type of ultimate penalty. The ULTPEN project aims to address this gap and break new theoretical and empirical ground. It will be the first national study to assess the implementation and impact of forvaring on the entire population subject to the penalty, using a multi-method and inter-disciplinary approach. It will examine the historical rise and policy development of preventive detention in Norway. It will provide the first national overview of the characteristics of all individuals who have been subject to forvaring, and follow up trends over time such as the reconviction rates of individuals who have been released. Of major import, it will examine the lived reality of this type of sanction by carrying out in-depth interviews with forvaring prisoners, seeking to understand as far as possible first-hand stories and experiences of individuals who have been sentenced to serve indefinite preventive detention. Key findings from the study will be assessed against international trends and practice on long-term and life imprisonment. ULTPEN will therefore make a new and major contribution to our theoretical knowledge and empirical understanding about the evolution, practice and impact of the ultimate penalty in Norway.
