A populist criminal policy?

In recent decades, the populist nature of criminal policy has received increasing attention within the sociology of punishment. One way of understanding populism in criminal policy would be to see it as a result of politics in general that has moved in a populist direction. It has been pointed out in political science that non-populist parties can orient themselves in a populist direction without being populist. General characteristics of right-wing populist politics that have been distinguished are alarmism, authoritarianism, emotionalism, moralism, nationalism, and anti-elitism. These characteristics in general politics in Sweden can also be observed in the development of criminal policy.