Additional affiliation: Chief advisor, ModusA (Norway)
Academic degree: PhD.
Education: PhD, University of Oslo, 2008.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-
Research (topical) interests:
Democracy and transition
Rule of Law/Corruption
Crime and crime control
Social control and social theory
Sociology of knowledge
Marginalization and deviance
Current projects:
• ModusA (Norwegian foundation dedicated to providing analytical
commentary on social-, penal- and drug-related issues, embedded in the
values of democracy, the rule of law and the republic of science).
• LovUrett – academic consulting (lovurett.no)
• “The Book about the Shadow Committee.” Book manuscript on the failed
“drug reform (2018-2021)” described as “the largest social policy
reform of our time.”
Selected publications:
2025: “Who Will Watch Over the Rule of Law?”. Fagbokforlaget, open
access https://oa.fagbokforlaget.no/
Socio-legal reflections on “the largest rule-of-law scandal in
Norwegian history” in a Western European perspective, with parallels
from Denmark, the Netherlands, and England.
2024: Tålt brutalitet? Om hva vi vet og ikke vet om mennesker med
narkotikarelaterte problemer. (Accepted brutality – on what we know
and don’t know about people suffering from drug related problems).
Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. 2025;42(1):6-17.
doi:10.1177/14550725241288328
2022: Den kriminalpolitiske orden. Om forvaltningens åpne autonomi.
(On the penal policy complex). Retfaerd, nr. 3(173).
2021: Street Users in Drug Policy: On the Underestimated Role of
Welfare Institutions. In, Tham, H. (ed.) Retreat or entrenchment –
Drug policies in the Nordic countries at a crossroads. Stockholm
University press.
2021: The legacy of Nils Christie: Glimpses into the authorship of a
giant. Nordisk tidsskrift for kriminalvidenskab.
2020: Editor (with Kjersti Røsvik). Special issue on Durkheim. Norsk
sosiologisk tidsskrift. With an introduction.
2020: Hva er kriminalitet? (What is crime? Book in a series of «short
introductions»). Universitetsforlaget.
2019: Skjønn i barnevernet – mellom idealer og realiteter (Discretion
in child care as a prism for understanding welfare politics on the
“street level”.). In Aamodt, H., E. Dahl, E. Gubrium, M. Haldar og Å.
Hermansen (red.), Sosialt arbeid og sosialpolitikk i samhandling. Et
svar på velferdsstatens utfordringer? Oslo, Fagbokforlaget.
2018: Knowledge/recognition: Counting and the predicament of the
permeable biopolitical state. Theoretical Criminology.
https://doi.org/10.1177%
2015: Det Nyliberale Janusansikt. (Punishment in the age of freedom –
The janus-faced neoliberalism). Oslo, Novus Forlag.
2015: Controlling Roma in Norway: Governing by an administration of
distance. In Eriksson, Anna (ed), Punishing the Other. Routledge.
2013 (Editor, with Katja Franko Aas and Thomas Ugelvik):
Krimmigrasjon? Den nye kontrollen av de fremmede. Oslo,
Universitetsforlaget.
2011 (with May-Len Skilbrei): Chicagoskolens virkelige konsekvenser
(The real consequences of the Chicago School of Sociology –
introduction to special issue). Sosiologi i dag, 41(2), s 3-13.
2008: Sosial kontroll i byer . To tradisjoner etter Durkheim og
Tönnies (“Social control in cities – two traditions stemming from
Durkheim and Tönnies”). Universitetet i Oslo, juridisk fakultet, PhD
thesis no. 10 2008.