Special reasons? - A criminological study of prison sentences for offenders with a serious mental disorder. 

Sweden's legal system is unique regarding seriously mentally disturbed offenders. In 2008, the ban on sentencing such offenders to prison was removed with the aim of increasing flexibility in the choice of sanction. The purpose of the study is to examine how the Court of Appeal reason and motivates a prison sentence for these offenders. We have studied 16 prison sentences collected from a juridical database. These were coded through a qualitative content analysis. Through the method we have found that the penalty value seems to have more focus than the need for care when motivating prison sentences. The results were analysed in relation to sociological pairs regarding penalty and punishment made by Henrik Tham. We have found that this is part of what could be interpreted as a transition from restrictive to extensive criminal legislation.