Research profile

Annette Olesen is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology of Law at Aalborg University. Her research examines the development, implementation, and societal consequences of contemporary penal policies, with a particular focus on the intersection between criminal law, crime prevention, and welfare governance.

Her work centres on three interconnected research areas. First, she studies the development of penal policy and criminal law, examining legislative processes, penal expansion, and the political rationalities that shape contemporary responses to crime in Denmark and the Nordic countries. This includes research on public sentiments of justice and the role of political debates in the making of criminal law.

Second, she investigates preventive justice and risk governance, exploring how preventive interventions increasingly target individuals and groups considered to be dangerous or at risk of crime or future reoffending. Her research examines the rationalities, implementation, and consequences of such interventions across criminal justice and welfare institutions, with particular attention to gangs, sex offenders, and young people at risk.

Third, she studies the lived consequences of penal and preventive interventions through research on imprisonment, release, desistance, and the role of the penal voluntary sector in supporting people with criminal justice involvement. This work explores how penal policies shape opportunities for reintegration, citizenship, and access to justice.

Across these research areas, Annette Olesen develops and applies the concept of penal engineering to examine how contemporary forms of punishment, prevention, and risk-based governance increasingly converge. Her research explores how this development reshapes legal regulation, expands forms of state intervention beyond the traditional boundaries of criminal law, and raises important questions concerning proportionality, legal safeguards, individual rights, and the relationship between the state and its citizens.

Teaching
Annette Olesen teaches within criminology and sociology of law, with particular emphasis on punishment and sentencing, crime control, crime prevention, preventive justice, public sentiments of justice, prisons and imprisonment, execution of criminal sanctions, prison reentry and cross-sectoral authority cooperation, desistance and rehabilitation, collateral consequences of punishment, as well as law and its application in social work qualitative methods and socio-legal methods.

Research fields
Criminology, sociology of law

Research profile

Annette Olesen is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology of Law at Aalborg University. Her research examines the development, implementation, and societal consequences of contemporary penal policies, with a particular focus on the intersection between criminal law, crime prevention, and welfare governance.

Her work centres on three interconnected research areas. First, she studies the development of penal policy and criminal law, examining legislative processes, penal expansion, and the political rationalities that shape contemporary responses to crime in Denmark and the Nordic countries. This includes research on public sentiments of justice and the role of political debates in the making of criminal law.

Second, she investigates preventive justice and risk governance, exploring how preventive interventions increasingly target individuals and groups considered to be dangerous or at risk of crime or future reoffending. Her research examines the rationalities, implementation, and consequences of such interventions across criminal justice and welfare institutions, with particular attention to gangs, sex offenders, and young people at risk.

Third, she studies the lived consequences of penal and preventive interventions through research on imprisonment, release, desistance, and the role of the penal voluntary sector in supporting people with criminal justice involvement. This work explores how penal policies shape opportunities for reintegration, citizenship, and access to justice.

Across these research areas, Annette Olesen develops and applies the concept of penal engineering to examine how contemporary forms of punishment, prevention, and risk-based governance increasingly converge. Her research explores how this development reshapes legal regulation, expands forms of state intervention beyond the traditional boundaries of criminal law, and raises important questions concerning proportionality, legal safeguards, individual rights, and the relationship between the state and its citizens.

Teaching
Annette Olesen teaches within criminology and sociology of law, with particular emphasis on punishment and sentencing, crime control, crime prevention, preventive justice, public sentiments of justice, prisons and imprisonment, execution of criminal sanctions, prison reentry and cross-sectoral authority cooperation, desistance and rehabilitation, collateral consequences of punishment, as well as law and its application in social work qualitative methods and socio-legal methods.

Research fields
Criminology, sociology of law