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January 27th, 2015

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A broad majority in parliament wants tougher punishments for those who make bomb threats. Dansk Folkeparti is leading the way with a new proposal that would make the minimum punishment six months in prison.

A number of other political parties – such as Socialistisk Folkeparti, Socialdemokraterne, Venstre and Konservative – agree that tougher sanctions are needed, but are opposed to minimum sentences. They do, however, want the perpetrators to pay all the costs associated with their threats.

A bomb threat at Odense train station over the Christmas period last year cost railway operators DSB one million kroner.

”These costs should be sent on to the perpetrator,” Karina Lorentzen, the head of parliament's legal committee Folketingets Retsudvalg, told Metroxpress newspaper. ”And then we agree that the sentences are too low.”

Today, bomb threats usually lead to fines and a maximum of 30 days behind bars, as was the case with the 36 bomb threat cases that the police registered during the first 11 months of 2014. Many of the cases also involved young men.

READ MORE: Hotel bomb scare turns into burglary bust

Few women do it
Figures from Danmarks Statistik showed that a quarter of bomb threats in Denmark are phoned in by young men aged 15-21, according to the total number of convictions between 2010 and 2013.

”Usually, the threat targets their school, which they are angry with,” Mogens Lauridsen, a police inspector with the Copenhagen Police, told Metroxpress. ”But their plans are rarely thought through and they usually get a bit of a 'wow' feeling when they see the consequences of their actions.”

According to Henrik Høgh-Olesen, a professor and expert in behavioural psychology at Aarhus University, a bomb threat can give the perpetrator a sense of power as people flee in all directions. He compared it to sticking a twig into an ant pile.

Over half of all bomb threats come from men over 30, while women tend to be behind just 7.5 percent of all cases.