Nearly 267,000 final penal sanctions were registered in the Norwegian criminal justice system in 2025, a decrease of 2.4 per cent compared with the previous year. These figures are presented in the new Penal sanction statistics.
Close to 14,500 of the penal sanctions registered in 2025 were imposed by a court. This is 3.8 per cent fewer than in the previous year and 13.9 per cent fewer than in 2019, the last year before the pandemic. Relative to the size of the population, the number is lower than in any year since the beginning of the 1960s, as shown in previous analyses.
The 7,200 unconditional prison sentences registered in 2025 represent a decrease of 2.5 per cent from the previous year, 16.5 per cent fewer than in 2019, and the lowest annual number in the comparable statistics dating back to 1997. Historical statistics on penal sanctions and prison admissions indicate that it is necessary to go back more than half a century to find lower numbers of unconditional prison sentences and new imprisonments. Relative to population size, the number of unconditional prison sentences has almost halved since its peak in 2005.
However, the decline in unconditional prison sentences over recent decades has been greatest for shorter sentences. The total volume of unconditional imprisonment imposed in 2025 exceeded 4,400 prison years, which is 10.4 per cent more than two years earlier and only 6.4 per cent lower than in 2019.
Overall, the decline in unconditional prison sentences since 2019 has been particularly affected by a 42 per cent reduction in unconditional sentences with drug-related If the reaction is given for several offenses together, it is represented in the statistics with the offense that has the highest sentencing framework, the so-called principal offense. and an 18 per cent reduction in unconditional sentences for violence and maltreatment. In 2025, however, the number of unconditional prison sentences for drug offences increased by 12 per cent from the previous year. Instead, the decline this year was mainly driven by 7 per cent fewer unconditional prison sentences for driving under the influence and 28 per cent fewer sentences for fraud offences.
In 2025, there were 27 new preventive detention sentences, 67 new sentences to compulsory mental health care and 12 new sentences to compulsory care. For each of these sanction types, this is the highest annual number recorded in the statistics. On average, 0.35 preventive detention sentences were imposed per 100,000 population during the period 2016–2025, compared with 0.29 during the preceding ten-year period. For compulsory mental health care and compulsory care combined, the increase has been more significant, rising from an average of 0.38 per 100,000 population in the previous ten-year period to 0.98 in the most recent ten-year period. The increase follows legislative changes that expanded the legal basis for imposing such sanctions.
Fewer fines, but still the most common sanction
The vast majority of penal sanctions are fines. In total, 212,500 on-the-spot fines were registered in 2025, of which 196,500 were imposed by the police for traffic offences and 16,000 by the customs for smuggling offences. This represents 2.6 per cent fewer traffic fines and 7.3 per cent more customs fines than in 2024.
The prosecuting authority accounted for nearly 31,200 ticket fines, 7,500 waivers of prosecution and 1,200 Mediation Service cases registered in 2025. Taken together, this is 4.3 per cent fewer than in the previous year and 18 per cent fewer than in 2019, which is the first year with complete statistics for these sanction types. While the decline since 2019 is mainly attributable to fewer sanctions for drug offences, the decrease in the latest year is more evenly distributed across offence groups.
Few fines and prison sentences imposed on young offenders
The use of penal sanctions differs considerably for young offenders aged 15–17 compared with offenders in older age groups. Fewer on-the-spot fines are imposed on persons under the age of 18, reflecting lower numbers of registered traffic and smuggling offences in this age group. In 2025, 250 on-the-spot fines were imposed on persons aged 15–17. This corresponds to one on-the-spot fine per 1,000 population in this age group, compared with 47 per 1,000 among the population aged 18 and over.
Excluding on-the-spot fines, the number of sanctioned persons per inhabitant was lower in all age groups in 2025 than in the previous year, continuing a trend that also extends back to 2019.
Summary fines for other offence types are also used relatively infrequently against persons under 18 years of age. Instead, waivers of prosecution and transfers to mediation boards dominate as sanctions for this age group. In 2025, 2,600 such sanctions were registered against persons under 18, accounting for 56 per cent of all penal sanctions imposed on 15–17-year-olds. In addition, half of the 1,300 summary fines imposed on persons under 18 were A conditional fine means that the person fined doesn't have to pay the imposed fine if they follow the conditions set by the court or the prosecution (Penal Code section 53)..
There is also a higher threshold for bringing cases against minors before the courts, particularly with regard to imposing unconditional imprisonment. Of the 550 sanctions imposed in 2025 in total where bodily harm was the principal offence, 95 per cent resulted in a sanction more severe than a fine, namely community sentence, youth sentence, conditional or unconditional imprisonment, or a special sanction. Most of these (74 per cent) were unconditional imprisonment or a special sanction. By comparison, among the 85 cases where the offender convicted of bodily harm was under the age of 18 at the time of the offence, 78 per cent received a sanction more severe than a fine, while only 12 per cent were sentenced to unconditional imprisonment.
Among alternatives to unconditional imprisonment for offenders aged 15–17 at the time of the offence, 104 conditional prison sentences, 143 community sentences and 221 youth sentences were registered in 2025. This represents a substantial increase in the use of youth sentence compared to previous years, also when youth sentences and conditional imprisonments with youth supervision are considered together: from an average of 185 during the period 2019–2024 to 236 in 2025. In addition, 19 sentences combining unconditional imprisonment and youth sentence were registered this year.
Legislative amendments entering into force on 1 September and 1 December 2024 changed and expanded the legal framework for the use of youth sentence and youth supervision. Among other things, the amendments entail that: Because of these legislative changes, the statistical classification of sanction subtypes has been revised from the 2024 reference year onward. The subtype “Youth supervision” has been discontinued and replaced by new categories for “Youth sentence, youth supervision or supervision in mediation service” and “Mediation in mediation service”. In order to obtain a complete count of sanctions involving youth sentence, all sanctions classified as “Youth sentence”, as well as sanctions classified as “Unconditional imprisonment and other” with the subtype “Youth sentence (etc.)”, must be included. To compare the use of youth sentence with years prior to 2024, it is also necessary to include conditional prison sentences (or combined unconditional and conditional prison sentences) where the subtype is “Youth supervision”.
From decline to growth in young offenders sanctioned for serious crime
Young offenders under the age of 18 with violence and maltreatment as the principal offence constitute an exception to the general decline in sanctioned persons across all age groups in recent years. Over a longer period, there was a substantial decline in the number of young persons sanctioned through conditional waivers of prosecution, ticket fines or court judgments for offences within violence and maltreatment, from 3.9 per 1,000 population in 2007 to 1.7 in 2013. Thereafter, the trend reversed, reaching 3.0 per 1,000 population in 2025.
Although boys are overrepresented among sanctioned persons under 18 for most offence types within violence and maltreatment, the long-term trend is broadly similar for girls and boys. In 2025, among sanctioned persons aged 15–17 with violence and maltreatment as the principal offence, the rate was 1.4 per 1,000 girls and 7.4 per 1,000 boys.
The same trend is observed when examining the most serious offences within violence and maltreatment and sexual offence combined; rape, bodily harm, robbery and aggravated assault. In 2007, the rate for these types of offences combined was 1.5 sanctioned persons per 1,000 population aged 15–17. The rate subsequently fell by half, reaching 0.6 per 1,000 in 2014, before increasing again to 1.4 per 1,000 in 2025.
However, the trend varies across these serious types of offences , and their relative composition has changed over time. A larger share now consists of robbery and aggravated assault, while a smaller share consists of bodily harm. For young persons sanctioned for rape, which largely concerns sexual intercourse with children under the age of 14, the level has remained comparatively stable throughout the period.
On 1 July 2025, the new consent-based rape provision entered into force, expanding the legal definition of rape. The amendment introduced a new first paragraph to Section 291 of the Penal Code, stipulating that sexual intercourse without consent constitutes rape and is punishable by imprisonment for up to six years. As a consequence of the amendment, certain acts that were previously covered by Section 297 of the Penal Code concerning sexual acts without consent, carrying a maximum penalty of one year of imprisonment, are now instead covered by the rape provision.
