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Date: August 17, 2024 Sat
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sweden
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sweden
Results for sweden
474 total results foundAuthor: Priks, Mikael Title: Do Surveillance Cameras Affect Unruly Behavior? A Close Look at Grandstands Summary: This paper studies how surveillance cameras affect unruly spectator behavior in the highest Swedish soccer league. Swedish stadiums introduced surveillance cameras at different points in time during the years 2000 to 2001. This natural experiment provides a unique possibility to address problems regarding endogeneity, simultaneous policy interventions and displacement effects. Details: Munich, Germany: CESifo, 2008 Source: CESifo Working Paper No. 2289 Year: 2008 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Shelf Number: 115390 |
Author: Johnsson-Latham, Gerd Title: Patriarchal violence: An attack on human security: A broad survey of measures to combat patriarchal violence and oppression, particularly acts committed in the name of honour directed at women, homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender persons Summary: This report, commissioned by the Swedish government, is a broad survey of measures to combat patriarchal violence and oppression, particularly acts committed in the name of honour directed at women, homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender persons. Details: Stockholm: Government Office of Sweden, 2005 Source: Year: 2005 Country: Sweden Keywords: Bias Crimes Shelf Number: 103038 |
Author: Nilsson, Magnus Title: The Business of Narcotics: Do Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs Affect Young Men's Experience of Narcotics? Summary: In this thesis, outlaw motorcycle gangs are used to measure the effects of organized crime on young men's expeience of narcotics. The study relies on panel data for Swedish countie stretching over the period 1995-2005, using results from conscript surveys to determine young men's experience of narcotics. Details: Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University, Department of Economics, 2007. 46p. Source: Master's Thesis Year: 2007 Country: Sweden Keywords: Motorcycle Gangs Shelf Number: 113849 |
Author: Hjalmarsson, Randi Title: Like Godfather, Like Son: Explaining the Intergenerational Nature of Crime Summary: This paper studies intergenerational correlations in crime between fathers and their children and the underlying mechanisms that give rise to these correlations. Details: College Park, MD: University of Maryland, School of Public Policy; Stockholm, Sweden: Department of Economics, Stockholm University, 2009. 57p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: Family Relationships Shelf Number: 118225 |
Author: Ozkan, Cemal Title: Combating Human Trafficking: The Swedish Experience Summary: Human trafficking implies transnational transportation of people for purposes such as prostitution, slavery, begging or committing crimes on behalf of others. In Europe, trafficking has become an increasing problem over the last two decades because of ever more porous borders and the European integration, which has created a flexible milieu for organized criminals seeking to capitalize on the demand for purchasing sex. Details: Stockholm: Institute for Security & Development Policy, 2010. 3p. Source: Internet Resource: ISDP Policy Brief, No. 25: Accessed September 2, 2010 at: http://www.isdp.eu/images/stories/isdp-main-pdf/2010_ozkan_combating-human-trafficking.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Border Control Shelf Number: 119725 |
Author: Priks, Mikael Title: The Effect of Surveillance Cameras on Crime: Evidence from the Stockholm Subway Summary: This paper studies the effect of surveillance cameras on crime in the Stockholm subway. Beginning in 2006, surveillance cameras were installed in the subway stations at different points in time. Difference-in-difference analysis reveals that the introduction of the cameras reduced crime by approximately 20 percent in busy stations. The study shows that some of the crimes were displaced to the surrounding area. Details: Munich: CESifo Group, 2009. 17p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper No. 2905: Accessed October 21, 2010 at: http://www.ifo.de/pls/guestci/download/CESifo%20Working%20Papers%202009/CESifo%20Working%20Papers%20December%202009/cesifo1_wp2905.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Displacement Shelf Number: 120047 |
Author: Holgersson, Stefan Title: Dialogue Police: Experiences, Observations and Opportunities Summary: Dialogue police work is part of the Swedish National Special Police Tactics. During the last five years the Swedish Police have developed methods and approaches to policing situations which are or might become dangerous in everyday police work and at major events through implementing National Police Tactics which build on dialogue, de-escalation and non-confrontation. To handle high risk crowd events Special Police Tactics (SPT) are applied and a national reinforcement organisation consisting of police from the three largest police counties, is used all over the country when needed. The organisation consists of nationally trained commanders, uniformed police officers in mobile units, dialogue police officers, and plainclothes arrest officers and transport units. Through research in different European countries both at high risk demonstrations and football matches earlier perceptions of crowds as always being dangerous has been replaced by modern crowd psychology which focuses on processes within groups and between groups. Through this knowledge special tactics police now consists of an integrated strategie approach based on principles which can prevent and de-escalate conflicts and confrontations: knowledge, facilitation, communication as well as differentiation. By applying these principles self-policing (crowds keeping the order by themselves) can be promoted. These research based conflict reducing principles challenge the police to learn and understand more about the cultural norms of the crowds and their legitimate intentions, to facilitate peaceful protests, to communicate the intentions of the police and when crimes are committed to make interventions discriminately. One crucial factor in the development of Special Police Tactics is the dialogue police function. In this report, the author Stefan Holgersson highlights experiences, observations and possibilities which have emerged mainly during 2002-2007 of the dialogue police function within Stockholm Police Authority. The report is unique as it describes from within the police organization the developments of the dialogue function as the author is a police officer and a researcher. Examples of dialogue work are described to illustrate how the dialogue police functions as a link between the police command and organizers of demonstrations and manifestations before, during and after an event. The work is a long term one, building long term trust and making the police actions transparent and coherent. The dialogue police has an important role in informing demonstrators on how police operations focus on both contributing to peaceful protests and security and on setting limits to what is acceptable in order to avoid personal injuries and riots at major events. In the report Special Police Tactics and dialogue work is related to research and theories within crowd management. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Police Board, 2010. 134p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 1, 2010 at: http://www.polisen.se/Global/www%20och%20Intrapolis/Informationsmaterial/01%20Polisen%20nationellt/Engelskt%20informationsmaterial/Dialogue_bok100630Webb.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crowd Control Shelf Number: 120147 |
Author: Sweden. National Criminal Police. Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Division, Intelligence Section Title: Trafficking in Human Beings for Sexual and Other Purposes. Situation Report 9: 1 January - 31 December 2006 Summary: The National Criminal Investigation Department's ninth situation report on trafficking in human beings for sexual and other purposes contains an account of the work done by the police to combat trafficking in human beings. It also contains an explanation of how this can be prevented and suppressed, and also an account of current legislation in this area and its application. Details: Stockholm: National Criminal Police, 2009. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 1, 2010 at: http://www.polisen.se/Global/www%20och%20Intrapolis/Informationsmaterial/01%20Polisen%20nationellt/Engelskt%20informationsmaterial/Trafficking_Lagesrapport_9_ENG.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: Human Trafficking Shelf Number: 120151 |
Author: Blixt, Madeleine Title: Crime Victims' Contacts with the Justice System: An Augmentative STudy Based on the Swedish Crime Survey 2006-2008 and Focus Group Interviews Summary: The treatment received by crime victims at the hands of the justice system should be characterised by consideration and professionalism. This is important for several reasons. When the agencies of the justice system create a sense of confidence and security, this increases both the crime victim’s chances of recovery and the chances of ensuring that the justice system will function effectively while at the same time safeguarding the legal rights of the individual. The perception that crime victims are well-treated by the police, prosecutors and the courts is also important for the public’s confidence in the justice system more generally. Against this background, it is not surprising that the agencies of the justice system have for a long time now been working to improve their treatment of crime victims. During the first decade of the 21st century alone, a wide range of initiatives have been taken to improve the situation of crime victims. The objective of this report is in part to identify well-functioning aspects of the justice system’s work, but also to focus on aspects that may still require further consideration in relation to the justice system’s contacts with the victims of crime. This publication represents a translation of an abridged version of the principal report published in connection with the study Crime victims’ contacts with the justice system, which in turn constitutes part of a more extensive research and development project that has been conducted at the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, entitled The public’s contacts with and confidence in the justice system. The project has already resulted in two reports based on data from the Swedish Crime Survey (SCS), the one an analysis of Relationship violence against women and men (Brå 2009:12), the other a study of Teenagers’ confidence in the justice system and their propensity to report crime (Brå, 2009:20). This, the main report from the project, presents on the one hand a more detailed, quantitative analysis of Swedish Crime Survey data on public attitudes towards and experiences of the justice system, and on the other a qualitative analysis of data from focus group interviews conducted with crime victims. The report is first and foremost intended for those working in the police, the prosecution service and the courts, but its target audience also includes others who come into contact with crime victims in various ways, such as voluntary support organisations and the social services. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2010. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: English Summary of Bra Report 2010:1: Accessed December 2, 2010 at: http://www.bra.se/extra/measurepoint/?module_instance=4&name=Summary_Crime_victims_contacts_with_the%20justice_system_webb.pdf&url=/dynamaster/file_archive/100902/bfd299001dae9e72db200a821d6f0b08/Summary%255fCrime%255fvictims%255fcontacts%255fwith%255fthe%2520justice%255fsystem%255fwebb.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Victim Services Shelf Number: 120338 |
Author: Ring, Jonas Title: Crime and Problem Behaviours Among Year-Nine Youth in Sweden: Results from the Swedish School Survey on Crime 1995-1998. Summary: This study is based on self-report surveys of theft, violence and other problem behaviours (such as truancy and drug use) among school students in year nine (aged fifteen). The surveys were conducted every second year between 1995 and 2005, and the periodicity of the survey was then shifted to every third year. The most recent survey was conducted in 2008. The studies provide a basis for studying the prevalence of participation in crime and problem behaviours during the period 1995–2008. The objectives of the study are: to describe the prevalence of crime and other problem behaviours among males and females in year nine to describe trends over time in the proportions of students who report participation in crime and other problem behaviours on the basis of comparisons of the data collected in all seven waves of the survey; and to illustrate the students’ exposure to theft and acts of violence. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2010. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: English Summary of Bra Report 2010:6: Accessed December 2, 2010 at: http://www.bra.se/extra/measurepoint/?module_instance=4&name=Crime_and_problem_behaviours_among_year_nine_youth_in_sweden.pdf&url=/dynamaster/file_archive/100602/00ad50db2007ebe6a74a453a3b4cc888/Crime%255fand%255fproblem%255fbehaviours%255famong%255fyear%255fnine%255fyouth%255fin%255fsweden.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Surveys Shelf Number: 120358 |
Author: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra) Title: The Swedish Crime Survey 2009: Victimization, Fear of Crime and Public Confidence in the Criminal Justice System Summary: Crime and the fear of crime are social issues that are attracting an increasing amount of attention, and the demands being made on society’s capacity to prevent these problems are increasing. There is also a growing need to monitor and analyze crime and the fear of crime. In 2005, the Swedish Government commissioned the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) and other criminal justice agencies to plan and implement an annual survey of exposure to crime and levels of public safety (the Swedish Crime Survey) in Sweden. The first wave of data collection took place in 2006 and the principal findings were presented in a report in 2007. This publication is a summary of the fourth report of principal findings, based on the fourth wave of data collection, which was conducted in 2009. The Swedish Crime Survey covers a very broad range of issues, and this report presents the overall results relating to victimization, fear of crime and public confidence in the criminal justice system. The report contains few detailed analyses or explanations of the findings presented. In depth studies of this sort are instead presented separately in the form of special studies. Recent examples include studies on domestic violence against men and women, young people’s confidence in the criminal justice system and crime victims’ experiences of their contacts with the criminal justice system. Knowledge of victimization, fear of crime and public confidence provides an important basis for developing and improving the criminal justice system and other agencies, and may help to reduce crime and increase perceptions of safety. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2010. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: English Summary of Bra Report 2010:2: Accessed December 2, 2010 at: http://www.bra.se/extra/measurepoint/?module_instance=4&name=English_summary_NTU_2009.pdf&url=/dynamaster/file_archive/100401/9fa7c85c7b1d955bfa50c4b41c27bda1/English%255fsummary%255fNTU%255f2009.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Statistics Shelf Number: 120359 |
Author: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra) Title: Evaluation of the K-model (The Kronoberg Model) Summary: The K-model is a working model used by the police that aims to prevent young people from drinking alcohol in public places and, as an extension to this, to contribute towards reducing juvenile violence in these environments. The model was developed by the police in Kronoberg County (hence The K-model), which is one of Sweden’s 21 Counties and also one of the 21 County Police Authorities. The police’s own experiences and follow-ups of the model indicated that it was both possible to manage in a good way and had the capacity to reduce juvenile violence. . Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2009. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: English Summary of Bra rerpot No. 2009:5: Accessed December 2, 2010 at: http://www.bra.se/extra/measurepoint/?module_instance=4&name=Evaluation_of_the_K_model_summary.pdf&url=/dynamaster/file_archive/091229/c81e66bdea74d8ac3314be4e8c4d531f/Evaluation%255fof%255fthe%255fK%255fmodel%255fsummary.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: Alcohol Related Crime, Disorder (Sweden) Shelf Number: 120360 |
Author: Claude, Kajsa Title: Targeting the Sex Buyer. The Swedish Example: Stopping Prostitution and Trafficking Where It All Begins Summary: This publication presents the Swedish view on human trafficking for sexual purposes and prostitution. Its point of departure is that the demand for sexual services sustains these deplorable activities. Seen from this perspective, Sweden has taken a number of important steps, including stricter laws; measures designed to increase cooperation among authorities and organizations; and efforts to ensure better protection for victims and safe repatriation to their countries of origin. Details: Solna: Swedish Institute, 2010. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 9, 2010 at: http://www.ungift.org/doc/knowledgehub/resource-centre/The_Swedish_Institute_Targeting_the_sex_buyer.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Human Trafficking Shelf Number: 120434 |
Author: Korsell, Lars Title: Police Encounters with Organised Crime: A Research Project About Unlawful Influence Summary: Currently, the Swedish police are mobilising against organised crime (Ministry of Justice Ds 2009:38). Two hundred police officers have been allocated to fight this form of criminality; action groups are being set up regionally, in eight locations throughout the country, and centrally, at the National Criminal Police. The police information service is being expanded, and regional intelligence centres (RUC) with collaborating authorities will soon be found in eight locations throughout the country. Profits from organised crime are also being focused on, and the police are carrying out an “asset-centered” fight against crime in collaboration with other authorities. The efforts are focusing both on preventing new recruitment and on prosecuting established members. In addition, it is an ambition to create channels to facilitate persons defecting from criminal gangs. Organised crime thus appears to be an area of high priority. But measures give rise to countermeasures. One strategy is for organised crime to become even more cautious and invisible, investing in security and avoid contact with authorities. Another tactic, and much more rare, is to fight back, using unlawful influence, which is what this report is about. The term unlawful influence means harassment, threats, criminal damage and violence, but also corruption aimed at exerting influence over the discharge of work duties. It might, for instance, be about ensuring that the police do not carry out a check or apprehend someone. In other cases, they may want to make police employees act in a manner favourable to the influencer, such as passing on secret information. As unlawful influence can take many forms, and thus be aimed at police employees carrying out different tasks, the investigation covers both police officers and civilian employees. The expression does not cover all the instances of threats and violence to which police employees are subjected, but only those that the individuals in question feel fill a more qualified purpose – to influence them in the execution of their work. The following research project studies unlawful influence against police employees by individuals linked to some kind of organised crime. In this report, the expression “organised crime” covers groups with varying degrees of organisation, from youth gangs who are on the margins of criminal networks to specialised networks concentrating on a particular type of illegal product or service. In between, there are suburban gangs, biker gangs, prison gangs and political extremist groups. A characteristic of the central actors within organised crime is that their criminality constitutes a “profession”, where persons have reached differing levels of achievement. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2009. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: A Summary of Report 2009:7: Accessed December 13, 2010 at: http://www.bra.se/extra/measurepoint/?module_instance=4&name=Police%20encounters_with_organised_crime_summary.pdf&url=/dynamaster/file_archive/090729/ddda7c0ce88218cefffbd041636217eb/Police%2520encounters%255fwith%255forganised%255fcrime%255fsummary.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: Gangs Shelf Number: 120488 |
Author: Estrada, Felipe Title: Serious Violence at School Summary: In the light of the shooting outrage at Jokela School, in Finland, in 2007, in which eight people were shot to death, and following on from other serious violent offences at schools, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) was instructed by the Department of Education to conduct an investigation into serious violent crime at Swedish schools. The focus of the National Council's report is therefore directed at violence that commonly results in physical injury. The Swedish Government has instructed a number of other agencies to disseminate knowledge on programmes to combat bullying and other forms of humiliating treatment. The Government instructed the National Council for Crime Prevention to address the following three areas. 1. A quantitative examination of serious school violence This section of the report begins by presenting the findings from previous Swedish studies of serious violence in schools. The principal focus is directed however at new analyses of data from a variety of sources which describe the extent of and trends over time in serious violence at school. One of the important questions addressed is that of what characterises the incidents of serious school violence that have taken place in Sweden. 2. International experiences of preventing serious school violence. The National Council's review of the research literature illuminates what the research says about the possibilities for preventing the most serious incidents of school violence in the form of school shootings. The review also describes what the research literature has to say about the links between bullying and school violence and about the possibilities for preventing serious violence at school. 3. Swedish schools’ view of serious school violence. The third area focused on by the National Council relates to the prevention work which is being carried out in Swedish schools today. On the basis of questionnaires and interviews, we look at how students and others in the school system assess the way violent incidents are dealt with, examining the obstacles, possibilities and needs for preventive measures that different groups identify on the basis of their roles within the school system. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2009. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: English Summary of Bra Report No. 2009:6: Accessed December 13, 2010 at: http://www.bra.se/extra/measurepoint/?module_instance=4&name=Serious_violence_at_school_summary.pdf&url=/dynamaster/file_archive/090729/b92f847b40aa8fb8ae81ca4e03a79682/Serious%255fviolence%255fat%255fschool%255fsummary.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: School Bullying Shelf Number: 120489 |
Author: Hradilova-Selin, Klara Title: Partner Violence Against Women and Men Summary: For some time now, violence against women has attracted attention as being a major social problem – in particular, the violence men exert on their female partners. Studies based on various sources – criminal statistics, medical data and victim surveys – lead, in part, to different conclusions regarding the nature and extent of the violence, and its development over time. At the same time, knowledge is still lacking regarding the extent that men are exposed to violence in intimate relationships. Some studies indicate that this exposure may be relatively high. The question is important, particularly from a legal security point of view. Even those people exposed to violence who do not conform to the conventional image of a typical crime victim are entitled to be treated well by the judicial system. The purpose of the report is to highlight two main issues: 1. The extent and nature of violence in intimate relationships. Who suffers? To what extent do people exposed to violence in intimate relationships experience feelings of fear and insecurity? 2. How strong is the confidence in the judicial system among people exposed to violence in partner relationships? How do these people regard their contacts with the judicial system (the police)? What support have they received? Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2009. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: English Summary of Bra Report No. 2009:12: Accessed December 13, 2010 at: http://www.bra.se/extra/measurepoint/?module_instance=4&name=Partner_violence_aginst_woman_and_men_summary.pdf&url=/dynamaster/file_archive/090729/59ea9f3217210134a9ad69076ca8c4e9/Partner%255fviolence%255faginst%255fwoman%255fand%255fmen%255fsummary.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: Domestic Violence Shelf Number: 120490 |
Author: Kjellgren, Cecilia Title: Adolescent Sexual Offending: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Outcome Summary: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the prevalence of sexually offending behaviour among female and male adolescents in Sweden. One aim is to identify potential risk factors associated with sexually offending behaviour and a further aim to examine the outcome in early adulthood for a sample of sexually offending adolescent males. Three different samples were used for this thesis. A sample of Norwegian and Swedish female and male high school students (more than 9,000) participated in a population based study and responded to a number of items concerning sexual interests and behaviours, conduct problems, health, peer and parental variables. Five percent of male and one percent of female students reported sexually coercive behaviour defined as penetrative sexual behaviours and masturbation. Risk factors in particular associated with sexual coercion were identified by contrasting the sexually coercive youth with those who reported non-sexual conduct problems as well as with controls. A number of general risk factors as well as sexuality specific risk factors were identified among sexually coercive females as males. The male sample was used to further explore the link between being sexually abused and being sexually abusive. The association was confirmed also when controlling for other potential influencing factors. The second sample was used to examine the one-year incidence of all reports to Social Services in Sweden on sexually offending adolescents. The total incidence rate was .06% among the 12-17 year old male population. Comparing the findings of self-reports and cases reported to authorities it could be concluded that the underestimation of adolescent female and male sexual offending is substantial. A third sample of clinically assessed sexually offending male adolescents (M=15 years) was used for a follow up study. They were on average 21 years old by follow up, six years after assessment. One fifth reported sexually reoffending since the assessment. Risk assessments carried out in connection with the index offence were good in identifying those at high risk of sexually reoffending. One third of the males of the sample reported learning disabilities or neuropsychiatric disorders, and this was particularly prevalent among those who sexually reoffended. In addition more than half of the males had been convicted of a non-sexual crime by the time of follow up. Details: Lund, Sweden: Lunds University, 2009. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed December 15, 2010 at: http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1468451&fileOId=1468479 Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: Adolescents Sex Offenders Shelf Number: 120512 |
Author: Wahlberg, Kajsa Title: Manniskohandel for Sexualla Och Andra Andamal (Trafficking in Human Beings for Sexual and Other Purposes) Summary: The situation report aims to provide a picture of human trafficking for various purposes, and also the way in which the extent and prevalence of human trafficking in Sweden has changed since the previous situation report for 2008. The report is based primarily on sentencing and preliminary investigations, and on information received by the police in recent years relating to human trafficking. The report is aimed primarily at the government, public authorities in general and the various police units in particular, though it contains information that may also be useful to NGOs and the general public. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Police Board, 2010. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Situation Report 11: Accessed March 8, 2011 at: http://www.si.se/upload/Human%20Trafficking/L%C3%A4g%2011%20Fin%20ENG.PDF Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Human Trafficking (Sweden) Shelf Number: 120908 |
Author: Gronqvist, Hans Title: Alcohol Availability and Crime: Lessons from Liberalized Weekend Sales Restrictions Summary: In February 2000, the Swedish state monopoly alcohol retail company launched a large scale experiment in which all stores in selected counties were allowed to keep open on Saturdays. We assess the effects on crime of this expansion in access to alcohol. To isolate the impact of the experiment from other factors, we compare conviction rates in age cohorts above and below the national drinking age restriction in counties where the experiment had been implemented, and contrast these differences to those in counties that still prohibited weekend alcohol commerce. Our analysis relies on extensive individual conviction data that have been merged to population registers. After demonstrating that Saturday opening of alcohol shops significantly raised alcohol sales, we show that it also increased crime. The increase is confined to crimes committed on Saturdays and is driven by illegal activity among individuals with low ability and among persons with fathers that have completed at least some secondary education. Although the increases in crime and alcohol sales were slightly higher during the initial phase of the experiment, our evidence suggests that both effects persist over time. Our analysis reveals that the social costs linked to the experiment exceed the monetary benefits. Details: Stockholm: Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, 2011. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper 9/2011: Accessed November 7, 2011 at: http://www.sofi.su.se/content/1/c6/03/09/74/WP11no9.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Sweden Keywords: Alcohol Abuse Shelf Number: 123257 |
Author: Almen, Daniel Title: Long Term Unemployment and Violent Crimes - Using Post-2000 Data to Reinvestigate the Relationship Between Unemployment and Crime Summary: This study reinvestigates the relationship between unemployment and crime. By being the first study to use long-term unemployment, it contributes unique findings. Moreover, with a Swedish panel consisting of 288 municipalities and annual data from 1997 to 2009, the relationship is investigated for the first time with aggregate post-2000 data. The results show that long-term unemployment exhibits a strong association with violent crimes in addition to property crimes, highlighting a potential gap in the conventional theories of economics of crime. The point-estimate of long-term unemployment for violent crimes is between 1.5 and 4, and for property crimes it is between 1.3 and 2.3. Thus, long-term unemployment identifies a marginal group for committing crimes, particularly violent crimes, better than total unemployment does. Long-term unemployment plausibly creates a feeling of alienation that fosters violent and other non-rational behaviors. Details: Lund, Sweden: Department of Economics, Lund University, 2011. 27p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Papers, Department of Economics, Lund University, No. 2011:34: Accessed November 23, 2011 at: http://www.nek.lu.se/publications/workpap/papers/WP11_34.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Sweden Keywords: Economics and Crime Shelf Number: 123446 |
Author: Waltman, Max Title: Prohibiting Purchase of Sex in Sweden: Impact, Obstacles, Potential, and Supporting Escape Summary: This paper analyzes the core reasons for the Swedish law from 1999 which criminalizes purchase of sex and decriminalizes the prostituted person, passed as part of an omnibus bill against violence against women and recognizing prostitution as a form of it. Further, it documents the law’s impact by comparing data from several recent Swedish studies with the situation in other relevant countries, concluding the law has significantly reduced the occurrence of prostitution manifolds compared to its neighboring countries. Crucial obstacles to effective implementation are also addressed, particularly in present case law. Some of the critique against the law and disinformation about the law’s effects are also commented. Finally, to realize its full potential to support escape from prostitution more efficiently, it is argued that the civil rights of prostituted persons under current law should be strengthened to get damages paid for directly by the tricks/johns for the harm they have contributed to. An additional consideration is for individual states to extend the use of the Palermo Protocol (international law acknowledging connections between prostitution and sex trafficking) to charge tricks for trafficking when they “receive” persons who are effectively pimped. Details: Stockholm: Stockholm University, Department of Political Science, 2010. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Papers 2010:3; Accessed January 10, 2012 at: Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Prostitutes Shelf Number: 123537 |
Author: Hjalmarsson, Randi Title: The Origins of Intergenerational Associations in Crime: Lessons from Swedish Adoption Data Summary: We use Swedish adoption data combined with police register data to study parent-son associations in crime. For adopted sons born in Sweden, we have access to the criminal records of both the adopting and biological parents. This allows us to assess the relative importance of pre-birth factors (genes, prenatal environment and perinatal conditions) and post-birth factors for generating parent-son associations in crime. We find that pre-birth and post-birth factors are both important determinants of sons’ convictions and that mothers and fathers contribute equally through these two channels. We find little evidence of interaction effects between biological and adoptive parents’ criminal convictions. Having a more highly educated adoptive mother, however, does appear to mitigate the impact of biological parents’ criminality. Details: London: University of London, School of Economics and Finance; Stockholm, Stockholm University, 2011. 59p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 10, 2012 at: http://www.iza.org/conference_files/riskonomics2011/lindquist_m3664.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Sweden Keywords: Adoption (Sweden) Shelf Number: 123538 |
Author: Shannon, David Title: Child Rapes Reported to the Police: An Update and Comparison of the Years 1995-2008 Summary: It is widely accepted that the dark figure for sexual offences against children is very large. Since the 1980s, however, as the level of attention focused on children’s exposure to sex crime has increased, the number of sex offences against children reported to the Swedish police has also increased substantially, and continues to rise. In the context of the generally increasing trend in the number of reported sex offences against children, Swedish crime statistics show marked differences in the trends for different categories of sex crime. Since the mid-1990s, for example, and particularly subsequent to 2004, there has been a very marked increase in the number of child sex offences that have been registered by the police as suspected completed rapes. At the same time, the number of reported offences registered under the crime codes for sexual exploitation/sexual assault and attempted rape have followed somewhat different trends. It is likely that the variation in the statistical trends followed by different types of registered sex offences is due to a combination of different factors. One central factor, however, is that the Swedish sex crime legislation has undergone substantial changes since the mid-1990s, not least with regard to the way the rape offence is defined in the Swedish penal code. Against this background, this study has two principal objectives: • To illuminate possible changes in the type of reported offences that the police have registered as rapes against persons under the age of eighteen between the mid-1990s and the latter part of the 2000s. • To present a more detailed description of the incidents registered by the police as rapes against persons under the age of eighteen towards the end of the first decade of the 21st century – here the focus is directed primarily at age-based variations in the type of situations in which the offences have been committed, and in the nature of the relationships between perpetrators and victims. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2012. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Brå report 2011:6; Accessed March 21, 2012 at: http://www.bra.se/download/18.1ff479c3135e8540b2980002845/2012_Child_rapes_reported_to_the_police.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Sweden Keywords: Child Sex Offenses Shelf Number: 124628 |
Author: Jakobsson, Niklas Title: What Explains Attitudes Toward Prostitution Summary: Using a larger and more representative sample than previous studies, we assess people’s attitudes toward prostitution in Norway and Sweden. Compared to previous statistical analyses in this field, the present study is the first to use sophisticated statistical methods that can shed further light on attitudes toward different aspects of prostitution while controlling for other confounding factors. The main findings are that men and sexual liberals are more positive toward prostitution, and that conservatives and those who support gender equality are more negative. Holding anti-immigration views is correlated with more positive attitudes toward buying, but not toward selling, sex. Norwegians are more positive than Swedes toward prostitution. It is also found that supporting gender equality has more explanatory power in Sweden than in Norway, and it is argued that this may be due to the more gendered nature of the Swedish debate. Details: Gothenberg, Sweden: University of Gothenburg, School of Business, Economics, and Law, 2009. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper in Economics, No. 349: http://andreaskotsadam.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/prost.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: Prostitution (Norway and Sweden) Shelf Number: 125267 |
Author: Swedish Institute Title: Selected extracts of the Swedish government report SOU 2010:49: The Ban against the Purchase of Sexual Services. An evaluation 1999-2008 Summary: For a long time, Sweden’s official attitude to prostitution has been that it is an unacceptable phenomenon in our society and must be combated. Since 1 January 1999, it has been a crime to buy sexual services in Sweden, and an individual who obtains a casual sexual relation for compensation is sentenced to pay fines or serve a prison term of up to six months for the purchase of sexual services. In contrast to previous measures against prostitution, the criminalization of the purchase of sexual services targets the demand, i.e., the sex buyer or the prospective sex buyer. Since then, discussions on the ban have sprung up in both Sweden and internationally, and various interpretations of the consequences of criminalization have been put forth. In spring 2008, as part of an action plan against prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes, the Swedish government appointed a special committee of inquiry, known as the Committee of Inquiry to Evaluate the Ban against the Purchase of Sexual Services. Chancellor of Justice Anna Skarhed, formerly a Justice of the Supreme Court, headed the committee; she was assisted by a team of experts and secretaries. The committee’s objective was to evaluate the ban against the purchase of sexual services. It was tasked with determining how the ban functions in practice and the effects of criminalization on the incidence of prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes in Sweden. With regard to the application of the ban, the committee examined reports of crime and sentences in order to determine how the ban has been applied in practice by the police, prosecutors and courts. As to the matter of the effects of the ban, the inquiry compared the incidence and forms of prostitution in Sweden today with circumstances prior to the ban’s introduction. In addition, it compared the circumstances in Sweden with those in five other comparable countries—Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and the Netherlands. On 2 July 2010, the committee delivered its report, ―The Ban against the Purchase of Sexual Services. An Evaluation 1999–2008‖ [Förbud mot köp av sexuell tjänst. En utvärdering 1999–2008 (SOU 2010:49)] to Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask. The report encompasses the inquiry’s work and its conclusions. Since there also appears to be interest in the inquiry’s results outside of Sweden, this document consists of translations of those sections that are presumed to be of particular interest to foreign readers. First, the English summary, which is part of the complete report, describes the contents of the report in concise terms. Further, chapter 4 describes how prostitution has changed in Sweden during the ten years that the ban has been in force and the effects of criminalization on the incidence of human trafficking for sexual purposes in Sweden. Finally, chapter 5 consists of a comparison between the circumstances in Sweden and those in some comparable countries. Details: Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 2010. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 20, 2012 at: http://www.turnofftheredlight.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Swedish-evaluation-full-trasnlation.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Prostitutes Shelf Number: 125704 |
Author: Mellgren, Caroline Title: What's Neighbourhood Got To Do With It? The Influence of Neighbourhood Context on Crime and Reactions to Crime Summary: The overarching aim of this thesis is to contribute to an increased understanding of how the neighbourhood context acts to influence individual reactions to crime. The general framework is that the social and physical make-up of residential neighbourhoods influences individuals, over and above individual background characteristics. Disorder is an important neighbourhood-level factor and its presence is more or less pronounced in different neighbourhoods. It acts as a sign of a general urban unease and has potential negative consequences for the individual as well as for the community at large. Four studies have been conducted each with its own specific objective. The first study reviews the Swedish crime survey literature in order to assess the national evidence for neighbourhood effects, paying special attention to methodological issues. Overall, the current literature provides mixed evidence for neighbourhood effects. Methodological issues were identified as obstacles to drawing general conclusions and specific areas that need improvement were identified. The second study examines the origins of disorder at the neighbourhood level and the relationship between disorder and crime. Two theory-driven models of the relationship between population density, disorder, and crime are tested alongside an examination of whether these models are equally applicable to data collected in two cities, Antwerp in Belgium and Malmö in Sweden. The results found some support for direct effects of disorder on crime in both settings, independent of structural variables. Some differences between the two settings were observed suggesting that the disorder-crime link may vary by setting. To further examine the influence of neighbourhood context, the role played by neighbourhood level disorder in relation to worry about criminal victimization has been tested in a multilevel model in the third study. Overall the hypotheses of the influence of both neighbourhood level and individually perceived disorder, in shaping individual worry were supported. Individual background explains most of the variance but neighbourhood context has independent effects on worry. Individual level perceived disorder mediated the effect of neighbourhood disorder on worry suggesting that the effect of context is indirect through its effect on individual perception. The fourth study investigates whether it is possible to identify any unique neighbourhood effects on the extent to which residents apply crime preventive strategies. Initially some of the total variance in the dependent variables was found to be situated between neighbourhoods. This indicates that the neighbourhood context may influence individuals’ willingness to take crime preventive action. As expected, individual characteristics explained a majority of this between-neighbourhood variance. An important finding is that the contextual variables appear to have different effects on different activities, highlighting the need to study different actions separately. Details: Malmo, Sweden: Malmö University Health and Society Doctoral Dissertations, 2011. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed August 3, 2012 at: http://dspace.mah.se/handle/2043/12283 Year: 2011 Country: Sweden Keywords: Broken Windows Theory Shelf Number: 125857 |
Author: Ceccato, Vania Title: The Impact of Crime on Apartment Prices: Evidence of Stockholm, Sweden Summary: This study uses data over 9600 apartment sales in Stockholm, Sweden, to assess the impact of crime on property prices. Using two-stage analysis, the study first employs hedonic pricing modelling to estimate the impact of crime controlling for other factors (property and neighbourhood characteristics). Then, the willingness to pay is calculated for a certain property having as a function crime together with other house and area attributes. GIS is used to combine apartment sales by co-ordinates with offences, land use characteristics and demographic and socio-economic data of the population. The novelty of this research is threefold. First, it explores a set of land use attributes created by spatial techniques in GIS in combination with detailed geographical data in hedonic pricing modelling. Second, the effect of crime in neighboring zones at one place can be measured by incorporating spatial lagged variables of offence rates into the model. Third, the study provides evidence of the impact of crime on housing prices from a capital city from a welfare state country, something otherwise lacking in the international literature. Our results indicate that total crime rates showed no effect on apartment prices but when the offences were break down by types, violence, residential burglary, vandalism and robbery had individually a significant effect on property values. Details: Stockholm, Sweden: School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, 2011. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 10, 2012 at: http://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa10p1026.html Year: 2011 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime and Housing (Sweden) Shelf Number: 125966 |
Author: Eriksson, Katarina Title: Fear of Crime and Segregation: The importance of residential areas in relation to the general public's feelings of insecurity and concern about crime Summary: This report deals with and unites two current areas of policy: fear of crime and segregation. The main question is whether housing segregation in Swedish towns and cities affects people’s feelings of insecurity. One of the most important goals within criminal policy is “to make all of Sweden a secure country to live in”. Surveys have shown that a majority of Sweden’s inhabitants feel secure. But one problem is that the fear of crime is unequally distributed. Some groups of resource-poor and vulnerable individuals feel more insecure and worry about becoming victims of crime more than others. Housing segregation means that different groups of people live in separate areas. One effect of segregation that is often emphasised in political debate is increased crime and fear of crime. An underlying theory about negative neighbourhood effects in poorly resourced areas can be seen in many public documents. This posits that the surroundings are expected to influence the circumstances of the individual’s life, irrespective of the individual’s own resources. But it is important to differentiate between composition effects and area/neighbourhood effects. A composition effect only reflects a concentration of a certain population group in a certain area. For instance, earlier research has found that resource-poor and vulnerable groups become victims of crime more often, and worry about crime more than others. As these groups are often concentrated in certain residential areas, it is also a reasonable expectation that the proportion of insecure people is higher in these areas. But the idea of neighbourhood effects is based on a concept of dissemination effects between groups of individuals, in other words, that a concentration of poorly resourced individuals gives rise to something more than a composition effect. A neighbourhood effect means that the surroundings have an independent effect on the individual. For instance, if both resource-poor and resource-rich individuals living in poor areas are more insecure than their equivalents living in more resource-rich areas, this may be an effect of housing segregation. A problem with many studies of neighbourhood effects is that they use aggregated data, or data at the area level, in order to make statements about outcomes at an individual level. But, in order to answer the question of how an individual is affected by his or her environment, it is necessary to combine both individual and area data. The opportunity to study the combined data is now possible by using the Swedish Crime Survey (SCS). This is a victim survey conducted annually by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå). Details: Stockholm: The Swedish National Centre for Crime Prevention, Brå (brottsforebyggande radet), 2008. 17p. Source: A summary of the report 2008:16; Internet Resource: Accessed August 14, 2012 at http://www.bra.se/download/18.cba82f7130f475a2f1800022655/2009_fear_crime_segregation.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Sweden Keywords: Community Safety (Sweden) Shelf Number: 126033 |
Author: Jordan, Ann Title: The Swedish Law to Criminalize Clients: A Failed Experiment in Social Engineering Summary: In 1999, the Swedish government embarked on an experiment in social engineering to end men’s practice of purchasing commercial sexual services. The government enacted a new law criminalizing the purchase (but not the sale) of sex (Swedish Penal Code). It hoped that the fear of arrest and increased public stigma would convince men to change their sexual behavior. The government also hoped that the law would force the estimated 1,850 to 3,000 women who sold sex in Sweden at that time to find another line of work. Lastly, the government hoped that the law would eliminate trafficking into forced prostitution and the presence of migrant sex workers. Not surprisingly, the experiment has failed. In the thirteen years since the law was enacted, the Swedish government has been unable to prove that the law has reduced the number of sex buyers or sellers or stopped trafficking. Details: Washington, DC: Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law, Washington College of Law, American University, 2012. 17p. Source: Issue Paper 4: Internet Resource: Accessed September 30, 2012 at Year: 2012 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Prevention (Sweden) Shelf Number: 126517 |
Author: Ramalingam, Vidhya Title: Impact of Counter-Terrorism on Communities: Sweden Background Report Summary: This report provides an overview of the development of counter-terrorism policies and policing in Sweden, and the impact these have had on minority communities in Sweden, particularly Muslim communities. The report presents existing research and information on demographics and socio-economic contexts of ethnic minority communities, the development of a legal framework to address terrorism, the history of policy and policing with regard to counter-terrorism, the security context and attitudes towards counter-terrorism, and the political context surrounding migration, citizenship and terrorism. Part One outlines the history and current context of immigration and settlement of ethnic minority groups in Sweden, and provides a background on Sweden’s demographics. In recent years, ethnic minorities, and Muslim communities in particular, have been a major focus of counter-terrorism measures and discourse in Sweden. This section provides an overview of Muslim migration to and settlement in Sweden, and the mixed and unfavourable outcomes for Muslims and other minority groups in the labour market, education and housing. It sets out recent data on ethnic and religious discrimination in Sweden, particularly towards Muslims after 9/11. Finally, this section outlines levels of cooperation between the government and Muslim civil society organisations, and notes that there have been high levels of cooperation; Muslim civil society organisations have also received generous funding from the state and Swedish foundations. Part Two details the key legislation used in relation to counter-terrorism in Sweden. Sweden was first confronted with acts of terrorism in the early 1970s, and the government introduced the first anti-terrorist legislation in 1973. It sets out the criminalisation of terrorist attacks, legal definitions of terrorism, and the institution of special laws on criminal responsibility for financing terrorism. This section furthermore discusses the legal framework for investigatory measures and surveillance, including the controversial FRA law which had allowed the National Defence Radio Establishment to monitor all phone and email communications to and within Sweden without warrant, and, after heavy criticism, was amended in 2009 to improve privacy. Part Two ends with a discussion of checks and balances on counter-terrorism measures and laws. Part Three covers the policy context for counter-terrorism, providing an overview of the key policies in place to counter terrorism and violent extremism in Sweden. These include the ‘Action plan to safeguard democracy against violence-promoting extremism’, presented in December 2011, and ‘Sweden’s national counter-terrorism strategy’, presented by the government in February 2012. This section presents the key institutional structures, including the structure of the Swedish Police Service, and roles and responsibilities in countering terrorism in Sweden. It then outlines mechanisms for accountability within for these structures, detailing parliamentary committees and consultations set up to scrutinise the work of the police and other institutions. The section ends with a discussion of police behaviour and incidences of police misconduct and discrimination in Sweden. Several key incidents have drawn attention to the problem of racial profiling by the police in Sweden. Part Four discusses Swedish experiences with terrorism, providing an account of terrorist incidents in Sweden since the early 1970s, when cases of Croatian separatist terrorism brought terrorism onto the political agenda. This section includes the numbers of arrests, trials and convictions for terrorism offences in Sweden, and details several key events in recent years that have contributed to increased concerns about terrorism. This includes the 2007 publication of a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, which sparked protests and violent threats towards Sweden and the cartoonist himself. The most recent significant terrorist attack on Swedish soil was the December 2010 suicide bombing in Stockholm, perpetrated by a Swedish citizen of Iraqi descent. This section also discusses perceptions of the threat of terrorism among the Swedish public. Part Five explains the political climate surrounding minority communities and counter-terrorism in Sweden, and how political parties have addressed issues concerning migration, citizenship, security and terrorism. Though Swedish politics has historically been characterised by consensus across party lines on the subject of immigration, and such issues have not been politicised, recent years have seen the perceived importance of immigration and terrorism as political issues grow. The emergence of the Sweden Democrats -an anti-immigrant party arguing for increased political attention to Islamist extremism and the ‘threat’ posed by Muslim communities- in Parliament has not wavered the positions of mainstream parties on these issues. However, this section notes that the climate has become much harsher and the ‘tough on crime’ card is more often played in election campaigns, and immigrants and Muslim communities in particular are often presented as ‘problem’ communities in this respect. This shift in climate has significantly impacted ethnic and religious minorities in Sweden, and has had a particularly negative impact on Muslim communities, who have increasingly become the victims of suspicion and hatred, manifested in discrimination and violence. This report draws upon existing research on the Swedish population, the development of migrant and minority communities, and in particular Muslim communities. It refers to official government communications and external analyses to paint a picture of the legal and policy approaches to counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism in Sweden. Though there are Ombudsman statistics available on mistreatment by the police, and there has been some recent research to better understand attitudes and discriminatory behaviour within the police, more work must be done to assess the relationship between minority communities and the police. There has been little research directly on the impacts of counter-terrorism measures on Muslim communities in Sweden, and this report lays the groundwork for future inquiries on this issue. Given the existing state of research, it is, however, clear that through a combination of persistent socio-economic disadvantage, shifts in the political climate on security and migrant communities, the occurrence of Sweden’s first suicide bombing by an Islamist extremist, and increased government attention paid to Islamist extremism in Sweden, Muslim communities in Sweden have increasingly been subject both to suspicion and discrimination. Details: London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2012. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 5, 2012 at: http://www.strategicdialogue.org/Sweden_paper_SF_FINAL.docx.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Sweden Keywords: Counter-Terrorism (Sweden) Shelf Number: 126884 |
Author: Johansson, Hanna Sofia Title: Preventing Illegal Export of Cultural Objects: Summary Summary: Most countries have adopted legislation for protecting against the export of certain older cultural objects. There are also common EU regulations regarding the export of such objects to a third country. In Sweden, export has been regulated by law since the beginning of the 1920’s. A person who unlawfully takes out a protected object from the country risks being sentenced for up to six years in prison for smuggling. The purpose behind the legislation is that objects that are considered important to the cultural heritage should remain within the country. Cultural heritage is considered important because it contributes to the creation of a common identity. Additionally, it is seen as especially valuable because a cultural heritage that is lost cannot be compensated for financially. Objects that are encompassed by the export regulations include old paintings, drawings, incunabula2, books, archives and other antiques. Examples of objects included in the “other antiques” category are the cabinet on the front cover and the mirror sconce on the back cover. In general, the export restrictions apply to cultural objects that are older than 100 years. For many objects, there are also value limits that need to be reached in order for the export regulations to apply. There is no value limit for old furniture, and the age limit is fixed. This means that all furniture manufactured before 1860 requires a permit for export. Details: Stockholm: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), 2012. 21p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 6, 2013 at: http://www.bra.se/download/18.4dfe0028139b9a0cf4080001495/2012_10_preventing_illegal_export_of_cultural_objects_summary.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Sweden Keywords: Antiquities Shelf Number: 128298 |
Author: Sweden. Ministry for Foreign Affairs Title: Poverty and Trafficking in Human Beings: A strategy for combating trafficking in human beings through Swedish international development cooperation Summary: Although trafficking in human beings is not a new problem, it appears to have expanded in many parts of the world and assumed an increasingly global character. In recent years, the problem has attracted growing international attention. Trafficking in human beings is to a large extent a symptom of relative and absolute poverty. It is also a consequence of gender inequality and lack of respect for children’s rights. The overall goal of Swedish development cooperation is to raise the living standards of poor people. The overall objectives of cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe are to promote sustainable development and deeper integration and partnership in the Baltic Sea region and its environs. Enhancing democracy, reducing social injustice and promoting gender equality are all subgoals of Swedish development cooperation. Progress in these areas can greatly advance efforts to eliminate poverty, further closer integration and promote sustainable development. More specific interim objectives are set out in the Millennium Declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000. The Swedish parliamentary committee, Globkom, has submitted its recommendations on the future scope and direction of Sweden’s global development policies, and a government bill is expected in the spring of 2003. The committee’s report addresses the question of global social justice and considers ways in which this can be promoted via different policy areas. It also seeks to show that social justice policies can be based on and integrate a poverty and human rights perspective. Trafficking in human beings is an increasingly global problem and must be seen in this development policy perspective. It illustrates the need for close accord between policy areas and cross-border measures. The United Nations (UN) Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol on Trafficking in Human Beings define human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” It is a serious crime that not only violates the dignity of the individual but also infringes a number of human rights. Under the terms of human rights instruments currently in force, governments are responsible for protecting people against human trafficking. The governments of the countries of origin, all transit countries and final destination countries respectively are directly responsible for implementing the necessary measures to prevent and fight human trafficking, protect the victims and provide adequate support. Collaboration between countries is essential and the international community must assist. Here, Swedish development cooperation has a task to fulfil. Sweden’s commitment to combating human trafficking – at home in Sweden, in the European Union (EU) or elsewhere in the world – has grown rapidly in recent years. It is pursued in various policy areas and focuses primarily on transnational organised crime, poverty reduction, social security, economic development, migration, gender equality and child protection. A number of ministries, authorities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Sweden are actively engaged in combating human trafficking and supporting its victims. Sweden extends support for measures, projects and programmes to fight human trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, South and Southeast Asia and West Africa. It has initiated joint measures against trafficking as part of EU regional cooperation with Asia. This initiative was served as a catalyst for the further development of Swedish foreign policy in this area. Regional cooperation has also been initiated in connection with the current dialogue between the EU and Africa. Strengthening continued efforts by Sweden to combat human trafficking in the context of international development cooperation and ensuring a long-term focus on and institutional support for this task are predicated on the existence of a coherent strategy and effective guidelines. The present strategy is based on measures designed to fight all forms of human trafficking while focusing particularly on women and children, and on the most common and nefarious forms of exploitation, such as sexual exploitation, forced labour or services and hazardous child labour. It is based on a problem inventory, an analysis of causes and needs, previous experience and Sweden’s own resources and capabilities. It is intended for use by the Government Offices, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and other authorities active in this area in connection with their development cooperation work. Details: Stockholm: Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 2004. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 3, 2013 at: http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/574/a/20262 Year: 2004 Country: Sweden Keywords: Human Trafficking (Sweden) Shelf Number: 129255 |
Author: Grönqvist, Hans Title: Youth Unemployment and Crime: New Lessons Exploring Longitudinal Register Data Summary: This paper investigates the link between youth unemployment and crime using a unique combination of labor market and conviction data spanning the entire Swedish working-age population over an extended period. The empirical analysis reveals large and statistically significant effects of unemployment on several types of crime. The magnitude of the effect is similar across different subgroups of the population. In contrast to most previous studies, the results suggest that joblessness explain a meaningful portion of why male youths are overrepresented among criminal offenders. I discuss reasons for the discrepancy in the results and show that that the use of aggregated measures of labor market opportunities in past studies is likely to capture offsetting general equilibrium effects. Contrary to predictions by economic theory the effect of unemployment on crime is not mediated by income. Instead, an analysis of crimes committed during weekdays versus weekends provides suggestive evidence that unemployment increases the time that individuals have to engage in crime. Details: Stockholm: Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, 2011. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper 7/2011: Accessed August 19, 2013 at; http://www.sole-jole.org/12129.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Sweden Keywords: Economics and Crime Shelf Number: 129638 |
Author: Estrada, Felipe Title: Criminality and Life-Chances: A longitudinal study of crime, childhood circumstances and living conditions up to age 48 Summary: In this report, we direct our focus at the longer term consequences of involvement in crime. What does the future look like for those boys and girls who have been registered for crimes during their teenage years? We look at different groups defined on the basis of their level of involvement in crime during the life-course. We employ a new and rich longitudinal data set, The Stockholm Birth Cohort Study (SBC), which allows us to follow a cohort born in Stockholm in 1953 until they reach 48 years of age. One central finding is that the individuals who committed offences both as youths and as adults both came from markedly worse childhood conditions and had a significantly worse welfare situation in middle age. This is particularly true of the group of females who committed offences both as youths and as adults, who constitute a highly selected group, with experience of substantial childhood disadvantage. As adults, the majority of these women can be described as being in a state of social exclusion. A large proportion of them have no employment and have difficulty supporting themselves. Even though these things are also true of many of the men who persisted in offending into adulthood, it is important to note that in middle age, the majority of these men have some level of labour market attachment. For the vast majority of those who have committed offences life has turned out well. When we look at the cohort members’ family situation and labour market attachment, the differences between the youths who desisted from crime in their teenage years and those with no registered offending are quite small. The study illustrates both the negative long-term consequences of inequalities in childhood conditions, involvement in crime and the inability of society to resolve these problems. We also show that the youths who were unable to desist from crime when they became adults had themselves as children been looking forward to a very different future. An overwhelming majority of the cohort, irrespective of their degree of involvement in crime, had a similar view of what a good life would involve as an adult. The lives they then led as adults were apparently very different however. Details: Stockholm: Department of Criminology, Stockholm University, 2009. Source: Internet Resource: Department of Criminology Report Series, Report 2009:3: Accessed August 19, 2013 at: http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:282982/FULLTEXT01 Year: 2009 Country: Sweden Keywords: Female Offenders Shelf Number: 129639 |
Author: Hällsten, Mark Title: Crime as a Price of Inequality? The Delinquency Gap between Children of Immigrants and Children of Native Swedes Summary: We examine the gap in registered crime between the children of immigrants and the children of native Swedes. Our study is the first in Sweden to address the role of family and environmental background in creating the gap in recorded crimes. Lack of resources within the family and/or in the broader social environment, particularly in neighborhoods and schools, generates higher risks for criminal activity in children, and if the children of immigrants to a larger extent are underprivileged in those resources, a gap in crime may occur. In the empirical analyses we follow all individuals who completed compulsory schooling during the period 1990 to 1993 in the Stockholm Metropolitan area (N=66,330), and we analyze how background factors related to the family of origin and neighborhood segregation during adolescence influence the gap in recorded crimes, which are measured in 2005. For males, we are generally able to explain between half and three-quarters of this gap in crime by parental socioeconomic resources and neighborhood segregation. For females, we can explain even more, sometimes the entire gap. Resources in the family of origin appear to be the strongest mediator. In addition, the residual differences are virtually unrelated to immigrants’ country of origin, indicating that ‘culture’ or other shared context-of-exit factors matter very little in generating the gap. Details: Stockholm: The Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University; Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies (SULCIS), Stockholm University, 2011. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 19, 2013 at: http://www.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.55504.1321514493!/SULCISWP_2011_1.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Sweden Keywords: Immigrants and Crime (Sweden) Shelf Number: 129655 |
Author: Ombudsman for Children in Sweden Title: From the Inside: Children and Young People on Life in Police Cells and in Remand Prisons Summary: The Ombudsman for Children in Sweden has visited a total of 13 police cell blocks and remand prisons around the country, asking open questions about what happens and what a child thinks when he/she is deprived of his/her liberty. In this report we submit proposals for necessary measures to the government. Details: Stockholm: Ombudsman for Children in Sweden, 2013. 112p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 23, 2013 at: http://www.barnombudsmannen.se/Global/Publikationer/From%20the%20inside.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Sweden Keywords: Juvenile Detention Shelf Number: 131688 |
Author: Berman, Anne H. Title: Enhancing Health Among Summary: Four interrelated studies on drug users in prison are presented within the framework of a proposed model for approaching the enhancement of health for persons that builds on an existential view of prisoners needs, as well as the risk management and good lives perspectives. Risk management is the major focus in current offender rehabilitation based on research on what works , which has shown that focusing treatment on risk factors termed criminogenic needs, such as impulsivity, poor family relations and drug abuse, reduces recidivism by 10-15 percentage points. The good lives perspective proposes that offender rehabilitation should go beyond risk management and also address non-criminogenic needs such as autonomy, relatedness and competence as foundations for building personally meaningful lives. Study I explores the assessment of drug use problems, and describes the psychometric evaluation of the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT ), a newly developed 11-item test for quick screening of drug-related problems. Studies II-IV explore treatment for offenders in prison identified as drug users. Study II is a randomized controlled trial of two auricular acupuncture treatments for men and women in prison, inconclusive with regard to point specificity but showing that participants in both groups reported reduced symptoms of discomfort and improved night-time sleep. Study III evaluates the Reasoning & Rehabilitation program, an internationally widespread cognitive-behavioral program for groups of offenders. Results showed significant pro-social short-term changes in sense of coherence, impulsivity and attitudes towards the criminal justice system, as well as a 25% lower risk of reconviction among program completers compared to matched controls. However, the quasi-experimental nature of the study precludes any certainty regarding program effects; a selection bias whereby more motivated program participants are recruited could explain the findings. Study IV is a pilot project exploring the special needs of a subgroup of drug-using inmates with psychiatric and/or violent co-morbidity. Inmates housed in psychiatric prison units were offered long-term auricular acupuncture treatment. Half of the 22 inmates in the study received treatment twice a week for over eight weeks, and those treated over 25 times had lower psychopharmacological medication levels than untreated controls. Studies I-IV address individual facets of a proposed model for enhancing health among drug users in prison. The health enhancement model approaches offender rehabilitation from perspectives of existential psychology , good lives and risk management. Specific definitions of physical, social, psychological/personal and spiritual needs indicate a framework according to which prison treatment can help drug-using offenders find ways to secure healthy need satisfaction. Details: Stockholm: Health Equity Studies No 3, Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet, 2004. 131p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed January 24, 2014 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:196569/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2004 Country: Sweden Keywords: Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Shelf Number: 131794 |
Author: Bamzar, Roya Title: Assessing the Effect of Environmental Characteristics of Stockholm Underground Stations on SL Crime and Disorder Rates Summary: The objective of the thesis is to analyze whether the environmental characteristics (physical and social) of underground stations affect acts of crime and disorder registered by SL at the stations during 2006-2009. Researchers have suggested that transport nodes, such as underground stations, are more criminogenic than surrounding areas. In order to have a robust measure, crime data was standardized by passengers flow. A fieldwork was carried out in order to obtain information on the physical characteristics of underground stations. To find out whether there is a relationship between environmental features of the stations and rates of crime and disorder, Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis was used. The results show that Social disorder is the most common event at Stockholm underground stations. Crime and disorder in Stockholm underground stations mostly occur at evening, more often in holidays and during the cold months of the year (winter and autumn). Most of the crimogenic stations are located at the end of the lines. Platforms with good sunlight illumination have the lower rates of crime and disorder. Effective illumination reduces rates of threat in transition areas. Underground stations with fewer numbers of entrances have higher rates of crime and disorder. Platforms with higher number of CCTV cameras have lower rates of property crime. Stations perceived as pleasant have less rates of fight. Threat, vandalism and theft tend to be higher in the lounges with presence of cafes in their immediate areas. Future researches should be carried out to find out whether there is any interaction between variables used in this study, for instance, distance to city centre and platform layout this is important since the effect of the environmental characteristics may vary over space. Future studies should also assess the effects of socio-economic context of the immediate areas of underground station on crime and disorder at the stations. Details: Stockholm: Department of Urban Planning and Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, 2011. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed April 23, 2014 at: http://www.trafiktekniska.se/uploads/Biblioteket/Final_Report-Roya_Bamzar.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Sweden Keywords: Antisocial Behavior Shelf Number: 132142 |
Author: Lundholm, Lena Title: Substance Use and Violence: Influence of Alcohol, Illicit Drugs and Anabolic Steroids on Violent Crime and Self-directed Summary: Interpersonal violence and suicide are major health concerns, leading to premature death, extensive human suffering and staggering monetary costs. Although violent behaviour has multiple causes, it is well known that acute substance intake and abuse increase the risks of both interpersonal and self-directed violence. This association is quite well established for alcohol, while a more ambiguous literature exists for other common drugs of abuse. For example, anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), synthetic analogues to the "male" sex hormone testosterone are suggested to elicit violent and aggressive behaviour. Two studies (I and III) in the present thesis addressed the association between AAS use and being suspected or convicted of a violent crime among remand prisoners and in a general population sample, respectively. Further, using the case-crossover design to control for confounders stable within individuals, I also investigated the triggering (short-term risk) effect of alcohol and drugs such as benzodiazepines and AAS, on violent crime (Study II). Finally, a fourth study (IV) based on a large national forensic sample of suicide completers (n=18,894) examined the risk of using a violent, more lethal, suicide method, when under acute influence of alcohol, central stimulants or cannabis. The results of this thesis suggested that AAS use in itself is not a proximal risk factor for violent crime; the observed risk is probably due to the co-occurrence of abuse of other substances. Alcohol is a strong triggering risk factor for violent crime, constant across males and females as well as individuals with or without behavioral and psychiatric vulnerability. Intake of high doses of benzodiazepines is associated with an increased risk for violent crime. Cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of using the lethal suicide method of jumping from a height. I conclude that mapping substance abuse patterns may inform violence risk assessment and treatment planning. Details: Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2013. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 8, 2014 at: http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:601819/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Sweden Keywords: Alcohol Related Crime, Disorder Shelf Number: 132287 |
Author: Council of the Baltic Sea States Title: Human Trafficking 2013 -- Baltic Sea Region Round-up Summary: Trafficking in human beings is a global problem. Nevertheless, variations can be found with respect to (sub) regions and countries of origin, transit, destination and the degree of internal trafficking. The states of the Baltic Sea Region are all affected by trafficking in human beings. Every year women, men and children are trafficked to, through or from the CBSS Region for the purpose of exploitation. Furthermore, the region is subject to constant changes in the patterns of human trafficking and the forms of victimisation. This is particularly due to global economic changes and the inventiveness of organised crime structures. The overall objective of the Task Force against Trafficking in Human Beings (TF-THB) is to counteract trafficking in human beings in the Baltic Sea Region through preventive and protective activities. The mandate of the TF-THB is to fight against trafficking in human beings and all of its forms of exploitation. Our actions aim at strengthening assistance to victims, promoting cooperation, abolishing gaps in existing approaches and improving legislation. This report presents an overview of the current situation in the various countries comprising the Baltic Sea States. Details: Stockholm: Council of the Baltic Sea States, 2013. 122p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 15, 2014 at: http://www.cbss.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/TFTFB-raport_PRINT_all_crop_web.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Sweden Keywords: Child Trafficking Shelf Number: 132365 |
Author: Lindquist, Matthew J. Title: Key Players in Co-Offending Networks Summary: We study peer effects in crime by analyzing co-offending networks. We first provide a credible estimate of peer effects in these networks equal to 0.17. This estimate implies a social multiplier of 1.2 for those individuals linked to only one co-offender and a social multiplier of 2 for those linked to three co-offenders. We then provide one of the first empirical tests of the key player policy in a real world setting. This policy defines a micro-founded strategy for removing the criminal from each network that reduces total crime by the largest amount. Using longitudinal data, we are able to compare the theoretical predictions of the key player policy with real world outcomes. By focusing on networks for which the key player has disappeared over time, we show that the theoretical predicted crime reduction is close to what is observed in the real world. We also show that the key player policy outperforms other reasonable police policies such as targeting the most active criminals or targeting criminals who have the highest betweenness or eigenvector centrality in the network. This indicates that behavioral-based policies can be more efficient in reducing crime than those based on algorithms that have no micro-foundation. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2014. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 8012: Accessed June 16, 2016 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8012.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Co-offending (Sweden) Shelf Number: 132460 |
Author: Johansson, Isabelle Title: Swedish anti-trafficking policy: Official framework and local practices Summary: This study sets out to explore Swedish anti-trafficking policy, both how it is defined in official policy-documents as well as on the local level. A brief overview of the history of anti-trafficking policy and contemporary international measures relating to Swedish legislation on trafficking provides a glimpse into the contested meanings of these measures. This aspect finds foothold in the theoretical framework and is further developed throughout the study. By combining qualitative content analysis and interpretative policy analysis with interview-conducted among practitioners working in this field in a local context, Swedish anti-trafficking policy is explored on different levels. The analysis of the legal Swedish framework and one national anti-trafficking action plan suggests that the Swedish fight against trafficking is strictly interlinked with another fight, one against prostitution. However, there seems to be a discrepancy between the theory and practice of this national policy. In the interviews with the local practitioners it is revealed that what is framed as anti-trafficking policy in official policy-documents is both contested and reconstructed on the local level. Thus, this study argues that Swedish anti-trafficking policy is far from a straightforward matter. Details: Malmo, Sweden: Malmo University, Faculty of Culture and Society, 2014. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed September 9, 2014 at: http://dspace.mah.se/bitstream/handle/2043/17671/MA%20Thesis%20-%20Isabelle%20Johansson%20-%20final.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Anti-Trafficking Policy Shelf Number: 133190 |
Author: Carlsson, Christoffer Title: Continuities and Changes in Criminal Careers Summary: We know that the best predictor of future criminal behavior is past criminal behavior (Robins, 1966). There is thus a striking degree of continuity in this form of behavior over time. At the same time, we know that the vast majority of people who engage in crime are teenagers and that they stop offending with age (Hirschi and Gottfredson, 1983). The findings seem to contradict each other; how can the life course with regards to crime be characterized by both continuity and change? Explaining these empirical findings has been the main task of life-course criminology, and contributing to an understanding of how and why offenders continue their criminal careers once they have started, and how and why they stop, is also the purpose of this dissertation. In this first chapter I present the features of the research field commonly referred to as life-course criminology. Having done that, I move on to review existing explanations of continuity and change in criminal careers. In the third and fourth chapter, I outline and discuss more specific issues within the field: risk and risk factors, desistance, turning points, intermittency, and masculinity. Those are the issues my papers deal with. In Chapter 5, I present the study - The Stockholm Life Course Project - which forms the empirical backbone of my papers, and provide a fairly thorough description and methodological discussion, highlighting several features of the project. Since methodological considerations seldom get the attention they deserve when you write in journal format, I attempt a small remedy of that here. Having done so, I briefly summarize the papers in Chapter 6 before I turn to implications in the final chapter, along with prospects for future research. Details: Stockholm: Stockholm University, 2014. 127p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed November 23, 2014 at: http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:703878/FULLTEXT02.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Criminal Careers (Sweden) Shelf Number: 133936 |
Author: Rolles, Steve Title: Drug policy in Sweden: a repressive approach that increases harm Summary: The central aim of Swedish drug policy is to create a drug-free society. To achieve this aim, the country has adopted a punitive, enforcement-led approach to drugs. It is this approach, some have argued, that is responsible for Sweden's historically low levels of drug use. This apparent success of the Swedish model is therefore often presented as an argument against drug policy reforms such as decriminalisation and legal regulation. However, the degree to which Sweden's low prevalence of drug use can be attributed to its repressive approach is highly questionable, as research consistently shows that wider social, economic and cultural factors are the key drivers of drug prevalence - not the harshness of enforcement. Also of note is that levels of drug use in Sweden, while in relative terms still very low, are increasing. Furthermore, the Swedish model - in particular its antipathy to proven harm reduction measures - has had serious negative consequences that are almost never mentioned by its advocates. These include alarmingly high rates of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs, and a 600% increase in drug-induced deaths over the last 20 years. Details: Bristol, UK: Transform, 2015. 4p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 18, 2015 at: www.tdpf.org.uk Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addiction Shelf Number: 134956 |
Author: Jonsson, Linda S. Title: Online Sexual Behaviours Among Swediah Youth: Characteristics, Associations and Consequences Summary: Online sexual behaviours refer to sexual activities where the Internet and/or mobile phone are used. The aims of this thesis were to investigate young people and their experiences of different online sexual behaviours with regard to characteristics, associations and consequences, by using data from a representative sample of 3,503 Swedish youth (m= 18.3 years). In addition 16 interviews were made with young women who had sold sex online before the age of 18. Focus in these interviews were in which ways contacts between buyer and seller were established and the motivational factors for selling sex online. In study I (n= 3,288), 20.9% (19.2% boys and 22.3% girls) reported experiences of voluntary online sexual exposure: flashing in webcam/mobile; posted partially undressed pictures or films; masturbated on webcam; had sex on webcam. Multivariate analysis showed a significant association between voluntary online sexual exposure and a number of different forms of harassments online. Neither poorer psychological health nor problematic relations with parents remained significant in the final model predicting voluntary online sexual exposure. In study II (n= 3,432) four online sexual behaviours were studied: meeting a person online for sex online; meeting a person online for sex offline; posted sexual pictures online; selling sex online. These were investigated in relation to socio-demographic factors, psychosocial wellbeing and risk behaviours. Bivariate logistic regressions were followed by multiple logistic regressions. The data suggested that most Swedish youth do not perform any of the assessed online sexual behaviours, but those who did (15.2%) reported a more problematic background, rated their health as poorer, had a more sexualised life and had experienced more sexual or physical abuse. This was especially prevalent among those who had sold sex online. In study III, young women with experiences of selling sex online before the age of 18 were interviewed. The interviews focused on the role Internet and mobile phone play and the methods of contacts and characteristics of the communication between buyer and seller. Two main themes were identified: Internet use - part of daily life for good and bad, depending on mood; Patterns of contacts - innocent/curious, dating, advertising. In the fourth study the interviews with the young women who had sold sex online before the age of 18 were analysed focusing on the womens perceptions of the reasons why they started, continued and stopped selling sex. Three themes and eight sub-themes were identified in relation to different stages in their lives in the sex trade, each with its own storyline: Entering, adverse life experiences - traumatic events, feeling different and being excluded; Immersion, using the body as a regulating tool - being seen, being touched, being in control, affect regulation and self-harming; Exiting, change or die - living close to death, the process of quitting. In conclusion, the results from this thesis showed that most young people use Internet and mobile phones for non-sexual activities. Sexual behaviours online were associated with a more problematic background and poorer wellbeing. More research, attention and support are needed, especially related to young people selling sex online. Details: Linkoping, Sweden: Linkoping University, 2015. 100p. Source: Internet Resource: Medical Dissertations, No. 1444: Accessed April 7, 2015 at: http://www.dart-europe.eu/full.php?id=1040135 Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Internet Shelf Number: 135169 |
Author: Uittenbogaard, Adriaan Cornelis Title: Clusters of Urban Crime and Safety in Transport Nodes Summary: The objective of the thesis is to provide a better understanding of the safety conditions in urban environments, particularly related to those found in transport nodes, in this case, underground stations, and surrounding areas1. First, the study starts with an analysis of the overall city, identifying concentrations of crime in the urban fabric and then focusing on the criminogenic conditions at and around underground stations. The analysis combines the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), statistical techniques and data of different types and sources. Regression models were used to assess the importance of the environmental attributes of underground stations on crime rates. Findings show that violent and property crimes show different hotspots at different times. Crime patterns tend to follow people�s scheduled patterns of routine activity. The socio-economic composition of the surrounding environment of the stations has a significant impact on crime at these transport nodes, but more important were attributes of the physical and social environment at the stations. For instance, low guardianship and poor visibility at the stations together with mixed land-uses in the surrounding areas induced crime rates at the stations. It is therefore suggested that intervention to improve safety conditions at the stations should focus on a holistic approach, taking into account the station and surrounding areas, but also being aware of crime variation on specific places at specific times. Details: Stockholm: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and the Build Environment, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management 2013. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed May 1, 2015 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:603657/FULLTEXT02 Year: 2013 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Analysis Shelf Number: 135455 |
Author: Anwar, Shamena Title: Politics in the Courtroom: Political Ideology and Jury Decision Making Summary: This paper uses data from the Gothenburg District Court in Sweden and a research design that exploits the random assignment of politically appointed jurors (termed namndeman) to make three contributions to the literature on jury decision-making: (i) an assessment of whether systematic biases exist in the Swedish namndeman system, (ii) causal evidence on the impact of juror political party on verdicts, and (iii) an empirical examination of the role of peer effects in jury decision-making. The results reveal a number of systematic biases: convictions for young defendants and those with distinctly Arabic sounding names increase substantially when they are randomly assigned jurors from the far-right (nationalist) Swedish Democrat party, while convictions in cases with a female victim increase markedly when they are assigned jurors from the far-left (feminist) Vnster party. The results also indicate the presence of peer effects, with jurors from both the far-left and far-right parties drawing the votes of their more centrist peers towards their positions. Peer effects take the form of both sway effects, where jurors influence the opinions of their closest peers in a way that can impact trial outcomes, and dissent aversion, where jurors switch non-pivotal votes so that the decision is unanimous. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2015. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper 21145: Accessed May 13, 2015 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w21145.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Juries Shelf Number: 135625 |
Author: Leinfelt, Fredrik Title: The Stockholm Gang Model: PANTHER: Stockholm Gang Intervention & Prevention Project, 2009-2012 Summary: In 2009, the Stockholm County Police and the Section against Gang Crime (SGI) was awarded a substantial three-year EU grant (1,1 million Euro) to study and develop new methods in the fight against gangs and gang crime. This grant resulted in the creation of the Stockholm Gang Intervention and Prevention Project (SGIP), a project that would bridge science with pragmatism and advance the current knowledge on Swedish street gangs. Specifically, SGIP would develop and introduce a new philosophy, concept, or framework on how law enforcement and social agencies can work against gangs; a philosophy based on "holistic-oriented policing" - a concept that fully incorporate the fundamentals of problem-oriented policing and applied theory. Consequently, this book is the written product of the Stockholm Gang Intervention and Prevention Project - a collection of theory and practice. This book is intended primarily for researchers and scholars interested in gang research, although it may have some appeal to police administrators interested in implementing a holistic program of gang intervention and prevention. This book will introduce the foundation for a new philosophy, a model we named after the acronym PANTHER. However, we also wanted to offer the reader a contemporary and international view on gangs and gang enforcement. Details: Stockholm: Polismyndigheten i Stockholms ln (Stockholm County Police), 2012. 350 p Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 13, 2015 at: http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:787602/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Sweden Keywords: Gang Enforcement Shelf Number: 135999 |
Author: Beckley, Amber L. Title: Foreign background and criminal offending among young males in Stockholm Summary: This doctoral thesis considers how factors from the home country, the family, and the individual impact the risk for criminal offending among young males from a foreign background residing in Stockholm. I use Swedish register data to examine the risk for police registered suspicion of criminal offending. The introductory chapter presents an historical overview of immigration in Sweden, theories of criminal offending, and details about analysis of register data. It is followed by three empirical studies that consider unique risk factors for crime among children of immigrants while controlling for factors encountered within Sweden. The first study shows that young male children of immigrants do not seem to be inherently violent as a result of coming from a war-torn country. The second study indicates that it is not the age at immigration, but the family situation that seems to dictate criminal propensity. The final study suggests that threats of deportation and stricter immigration policies do not seem to deter criminality. The most interesting result was probably that high home country human development was a protective factor against crime. This is the first known work to uncover such a result. Future theoretical development may be best aimed at unpacking and empirically evaluating the human development index as a risk factor. Together, these three studies suggest that some previously unconsidered uniquely immigrant factors are related to risk for criminality. Details: Stockholm: Stockholm University, Department of Criminology, 2015. 63p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed July 13, 2015 at: http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:794216/FULLTEXT02.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Immigrants Shelf Number: 136013 |
Author: Aslund, Olof Title: Education and Criminal Behavior: Insights from an Expansion of Upper Secondary School Summary: We study the impact on criminal activity from a large scale Swedish reform of vocational upper secondary education, extending programs from two to three years and adding more general theoretical content. The reform directly concerns age groups where criminal activity is high and students who are highly overrepresented among criminal offenders. The nature of the reform and the rich administrative data allow us to shed light on several behavioral mechanisms. Our results show that the prolonged and more general education lead to a reduction in property crime, but no significant decrease in violent crime. The effect is mainly concentrated to the third year after enrollment, which suggests that being in school reduces the opportunities and/or inclinations to commit crime. Details: Stockholm: Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy (IFAU), et al.; 2015. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 5, 2015 at: http://www2.ne.su.se/paper/wp15_06.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Delinquency Prevention Shelf Number: 136328 |
Author: Kindgren, Johanna Title: Work, education and treatment in Swedish prisons. A study on occupational activities for inmates Summary: The law requires inmates in Swedish prisons to participate in occupational activities during their sentence. The occupational activities may take the form of work, education, treatment programmes, or another structured activity. An inmate's repeated refusal to participate in assigned occupational activities may lead to a misconduct report. However, most inmates want to go to their occupational activities since they feel that it makes life in prison more manageable and makes time pass more quickly. Inmate participation in occupational activities can also be positive from a safety perspective; it can lead to fewer conflicts in the wings and closer contact between personnel and inmates. Last, but not least, occupational activities can contribute to the inmate's rehabilitation and thus reduce the risk of recidivism. Although occupational activities are a central element of the sentence, there are no comprehensive studies regarding its content and quality. The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra) has therefore been instructed by the Government to survey occupational activities in Swedish prisons. The situation in Sweden and other relevant countries is also to be compared. Finally, Bra will evaluate the positive effects of occupational activities on the inmates and shed light on how they can be developed. The study is based on Bra's visits to twelve prisons in which a total of almost 200 people, both personnel and inmates, were interviewed. Two surveys were also sent out, one to conditionally released persons and one to heads of each prison. In addition, statistics from the Prison and Probation Service and the Swedish Public Employment Service were compiled for the report. Details: Copenhagen: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra): 2015. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report 2015:20: Accessed March 1, 2016 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.31d7fffa1504bbffea065d06/1448970661178/2015_20_Work%2C+training+and+treatment+in+Swedish+prison_r.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Correctional Programs Shelf Number: 138007 |
Author: Selin, Klara Hradilova Title: Longer prison sentences for serious violent crime in Sweden: An evaluation of the 2010 sentencing reform Summary: In 2010, the Swedish Parliament passed a bill focused on increasing the severity of the sentences imposed for serious violent offences. Bra (the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention) has evaluated what effect the sentencing reform had produced. This report presents the results of the evaluation, and is organised on the basis of three central research questions: - Have the sentences imposed for serious violent offences become more severe - Has there been an increase in the degree of variation in the length of the sentences imposed? - Has the clarification of the requirement to consider recidivism produced any measurable effects? Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2014. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report No. 2014:6: Accessed March 9, 2016 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.221265bc145ae05f27a19ec/1401195419581/2014_Longer+prison+sentences+for+serious+violent+crime+in+Sweden.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Punishment Shelf Number: 138141 |
Author: Marklund, Fredrik Title: Crime prevention in hot spots: The results and experiences from two project targeting muggings and assault Summary: This report looks at two projects carried out by the police in Stockholm and Sodermanland in collaboration with the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra). The project primarily concerns crime prevention initiatives targeting muggings in Stockholm and open-air assault in Eskilstuna. The point of departure was the potential in both cities to concentrate crime prevention initiatives to specific locations, known as hot spots, for the offence in question. Bra's role in this context was to provide methodological support - in the sense of assisting the various police authorities in the choice of initiatives and working methods based on available research - and to evaluate the outcomes of the projects. The police was responsible for designing the project's organisational framework, developing initiatives and implementing these. In both cases the project duration was one year. The purpose of the projects was to reduce the crime rate in the two cities. In a larger perspective, it is also Bra's hope that the report will contribute to stimulating the police to invest in crime prevention initiatives with a clearer scientific basis. Details: Stockholm: Bra -- The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2014. 7 p. (English Summary) Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report No. 2014:15: Accessed March 12, 2016 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.12caa4f91440b31239f321b/1399560117212/2014_Crime+prevention+in+hot+spots.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Assaults Shelf Number: 138181 |
Author: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra) Title: Restraining Orders Summary: The purpose of the 2011 amendment to the Restraining Order Ac was to "strengthen the orders crime prevention effect and improve the protection the order is intended to provide." On the basis of this study, the National Council has found that the application of the Act has remained largely unchanged subsequent to 2011. The aims of the reform do not appear to have been achieved. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra): 2015. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report 2015:3: Accessed March 12, 2016 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.3e68a7df14d334859aa203/1431499747181/2015_3_Restraining_orders.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Domestic Violence Shelf Number: 138182 |
Author: Granath, Sven Title: Lethal violence in Sweden 1990-2014: A description of trends with a specific focus on firearm violence Summary: Lethal violence is a central type of offence in studies of crime trends in Sweden and in other countries. The rate of unreported cases, i.e. events which never come to the police's attention, is believed to be low for such offences and there is relatively consistent data over time. This report analyses all cases of completed murder, manslaughter, and assault with a lethal outcome of which the police were aware from 1990-2014. The purpose is to describe lethal violence in Sweden, both with a focus on the general trends and with a specific focus on lethal violence with firearms. The latter type of lethal violence has been given a great deal of attention during recent years, not the least in connection with reports of shootings in major cities while, at the same time, there has not yet been a detailed analysis of lethal firearm violence. In addition to information from the criminal justice system regarding cases of lethal violence (police investigations, sentences, etc.), the report also uses data from the National Board of Health and Welfare's cause of death register and patient register. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra), 2015. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report 2015:24: Accessed March 14, 2016 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.47fa372d1520dfb2fc51b888/1452503671860/2015_Lethal_violence_in_Sweden_1990_2014.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Alcohol Related Crime Shelf Number: 138213 |
Author: Hvitfeldt, Thomas Title: Swedish Crime Survey 2015 Summary: This report presents the overall results of the 2015 Swedish Crime Survey (Swedish abbreviation: NTU). Approximately 12,400 persons responded to the questions; this was a 63 per cent response rate to the survey. Most participated through telephone interviews, but a smaller percentage participated through posted questionnaires or Internet questionnaires. The results of the report are summarised below, divided into the following areas of enquiry: exposure to crime, insecurity, trust in the criminal justice system, and victims' contacts with the justice system. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra), 2016. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report 2016:1: Accessed March 14, 2016 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.47fa372d1520dfb2fc572961/1454313352735/2016_NTU_summary_2015.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Statistics Shelf Number: 138215 |
Author: Horgby, Anna Title: Money laundering and other money management: Criminal money, black money and murky money in the legal economy Summary: Money laundering is a complicated concept. The words "money laundering" customarily refer to measures to conceal financial gains from criminality, i.e. to convert black or criminal money to clean money. There are, however, offences where the criminal financial gains do not need to be "laundered". One example is when clean money is made black in order to make it possible to withdraw it from the company to finance undeclared work. In respect of environmental offences and the violation of other rules which regulate businesses, no special measures are necessary to conceal gains from "saved" costs since such gains can instead be treated as profit or paid out as wages (so-called "murky money"). Bra has been instructed by the Government to investigate the circumstances surrounding, and methods used for, money laundering in Sweden. The overall purpose of the mandate is to identify central sectors in which a particularly significant amount of money laundering occurs and to assess the risks within such sectors. The mandate also includes surveying money laundering methods, analysing international aspects, presenting projections for the future, and suggesting ways to combat money laundering. Details: Stockholm: Swedish Council for Crime Prevention (Bra), 2016. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report 2015:22: Accessed March 14, 2016 at: English summary of Bra report 2015:22: Accessed March 14, 2016 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.47fa372d1520dfb2fc59ee71/1455262550837/2015_22_Money_Laundering.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Financial Crimes Shelf Number: 138216 |
Author: Lundgren, Marcus Title: Men's violence against women, honour-related violence and repression and violence in same-sex relationships Summary: In November 2007, the Government put forward an overall strategy for the work with preventing men's violence against women for the coming three years, known as the Action Plan for Combating Men's Violence Against Women, Honour-Related Violence and Repression and Violence in Same-Sex Relationships. In the plan, national and local authorities were given 56 different tasks aiming to achieve a sustainable level of ambition in the work against violence. The Government gave the National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra) the task to follow up and evaluate how the plan was implemented. Bra's report was presented in December 2010 (Bra Report 2010:18). It shows that the plan has substantially increased awareness and knowledge about men's violence against women among professionals in many different areas. It also shows that the actual support for women who are victims of violence has improved, even if it still needs to develop. The improved support has made more women motivated to report to the police when they are exposed to violence, but the report also indicates that the measures taken have not yet had any visible effects on the total amount of women exposed to violence by men. It is our belief that the plan and its effects are of interest not just to a Swedish public, but also to decision makers and professionals in other countries. Details: Stockholm: Swedish national Council for Crime Prevention, 2011. 58p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra Report 2010:18: Accessed March 18, 2016 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.12305534131e173a7f180001557/1371914735610/2010_18_english_summary_men%27s_violence_against_women.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Sweden Keywords: Gender-Related Violence Shelf Number: 138334 |
Author: Patel, Emma Title: Threats and Violence: A report on the victimization of occupational groups important to a democratic society Summary: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra) has been commissioned by the Government to conduct a review of the research regarding threats, violence, harassment and attempted corruption against individuals performing services, or employed in positions, of particular importance to our democratic society. These groups include politicians, journalists, opinion-leaders, employees of the justice system, and certain employees in other state agencies as well as municipalities and county councils. Earlier studies regarding some of these occupational groups have shown that the exposure to threats and violence is significant, which can have negative consequences for democracy. The Government therefore wishes to obtain an overall understanding: which groups have been studied, which of these groups is most exposed to threats and violence, and where is the need for new knowledge greatest? The Government's commission also included looking at exposure to threats and violence in the various occupations independently, examining which parties are reported to be the perpetrators, the consequences for the persons exposed, and the experiences garnered from protection and support measures. In the report, we have looked at existing studies in order to compile a review of the research regarding threats and violence against the relevant occupations. The studies, however, measure different things, have different statistical periods, apply different definitions of threats and violence, and have been carried out in different ways. It is therefore impossible to make any exact comparisons between them. It is possible, however, to provide an overall impression of general patterns and differences between the occupational groups. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra), 2015. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of the Bra report No. 2015:12: Accessed March 28, 2016 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.3f29640714dde2233b1b6b1/1434547512096/2015_Threats_and_violence_ENG.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Victims of Violence Shelf Number: 138449 |
Author: Unizon Title: Pornography and Prostitution: a report on exploitation and demand Summary: Report on the links between pornography and gender-based violence, including legal policy proposals for Sweden with US comparisons. Part I (pp. 1-30) is written by Unizon (Swedish women's shelter umbrella NGO) and based on primary data from their member organizations. Part II (pp. 31-108) is written by Max Waltman in collaboration with Unizon. The four chapters in part II is based on Waltman's PhD dissertation (2014), making an analytical summary of the existing research, then followed by legal policy proposals. Adopting a problem-driven theoretical approach, the reality of pornography's harms is analyzed. Evidence shows its production exploits existing inequalities among persons typically drawn from other forms of prostitution who suffer multiple disadvantages, such as extreme poverty, childhood sexual abuse, and race and gender discrimination, making survival alternatives remote. Consumption is divided by sex. A majority of young adult men consumes pornography frequently; women rarely do, usually not unless initiated by others. After consumption, studies show many normal men become substantially more sexually aggressive and increasingly trivialize and support violence against women. Vulnerable populations - including among others battered, raped, or prostituted women - are most harmed as a result. The report concludes with a chapter outlining legal policy proposals. It analyzes their real and imagined obstacles and potential to address real empirically documented harms with law. First, a proposal for applying existing procuring provisions on production of pornography is made since pornographers literally "promote," and typically also "improperly economically exploit" that persons have sex for remuneration. Case law shows that freedom of expression is not an obstacle, so long as an application of general law on offenses committed during production does not directly target the dissemination of otherwise constitutionally protected expressive materials (cf. conviction of Anna Odell's Art Activism 2009, and convictions of rapists who systematically filmed their offenses to make pornography). Second, a legislation against dissemination via similar amendments in the Swedish basic law as for child pornography or alcohol commercials is proposed, but based on a more precise and narrowly tailored definition of the graphic sexually explicit subordinating, and dehumanizing and objectifying pornography that evidence-based research show causes more gender-based violence. Civil rights legislation against such sex discrimination is recommended, among other things since studies of the application of criminal pornography laws show serious deficiencies or non-enforcement when the initiative does not lie among those affected - an approach that does not account effectively for their perspectives and interests. The latter can be represented by actors with stronger incentives (e.g., women's shelter organizations) than disinterested, desensitized, or over-worked police officers and prosecutors. Details: Stockholm: Unizon, 2016. 112p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 20, 2016 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2846737 Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Gender-Based Violence Shelf Number: 140805 |
Author: Bloomfield, Kim Title: The Ripple Effect of Alcohol - Consequences Beyond the Drinker Summary: A significant amount of alcohol-related harm afflicts others than the drinker. The negative effects from drinking puts children and families at particular risk. In order to tackle the effects from drinking we must determine how alcohol affects others and what areas of society are affected. The publication "The ripple effect of alcohol: Consequences beyond the drinker" provides perspectives on how drinking affects us as individuals and as a society. In order to strengthen research projects and collaboration focusing on alcohol's harm to others, the Nordic Centre for Welfare and Social Issues established a Nordic research network, H20 Nordic, in 2013. The project has generated a number of Nordic comparative studies and publications. "The ripple effect of alcohol: Consequences beyond the drinker" outlines the key findings of the research network. What kind of harms do Nordic people experience from the drinking of family, friends and co-workers? To what extent do Nordic people experience harm from strangers’ drinking? When is parents’ alcohol use in the presence of children acceptable and what makes it less so? Other topics in the publication include deliberation upon measuring harm in terms of money, and an international perspective on alcohol's harm to others. Additionally, the publication includes accounts of hands-on approaches to harm from others drinking, for instance a report on how the police in Greenland aims to replace domestic violence with dialogue and how cooperation between bars, the police and municipalities minimises nightlife violence in Sweden. Details: Stockholm: Nordic Centre for Welfare and Social Issues, 2016. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: http://www.nordicwelfare.org/PageFiles/34564/H2O_final_WEB29.6.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Alcohol Related Crime, Disorder Shelf Number: 145400 |
Author: Uittenbogaard, Adriaan Cornelis Title: Crime Clusters and Safety in Underground Stations Summary: The objective of this thesis is to explore ways of assessing safety in an urban context and in transport nodes1 . The thesis is composed of articles that aim to determine whether safety levels vary within a city and within a public transportation network, particularly at transit stations. Finally, it offers suggestions to increase safety in these environments. The analysis makes use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and statistical techniques and combines several different data sources. Fieldwork supports the data sources by presenting an investigation of the current environment in and around the underground stations in Stockholm. Regression models were used to assess the (strength) relationships between levels of crime and the social and physical environment at underground stations. Findings show that urban crime in Stockholm municipality is concentrated in stable hotspots, varying as it were by the type of crime, in different places at different times. A majority of these hotspots are located close to underground stations. The environment of underground stations has a significant impact on the crime levels at these transport nodes; for instance, lower opportunities for guardianship were related to higher crime rates, while wellilluminated and open stations showed lower crime rates. An open layout provides better guardianship opportunities, which in turn may decrease crime levels. The surrounding socioeconomic composition of neighborhoods and the physical and social environment surrounding the stations affected crime levels similarly. For instance, mixed land uses in the station’s vicinity could be linked to increased crime rates. However, crime levels showed a varying distribution over time and space. Different stations showed different levels of crime at different times of the day; moreover, there was also a correlation to the type of crime: thefts, for instance, were most concentrated at central stations during peak hours, when stations were most crowded. The results of the study include suggestions for policymakers and organizations dealing with urban safety, planning and public transportation, such as police, transportation companies and municipal planners. The results suggest that crime interventions should take into account the dynamic patterns of crime and adopt a more holistic approach that considers stations as well as their surroundings. Details: Stockholm: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2014. 160p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed January 26, 2017 at: https://www.kth.se/polopoly_fs/1.465381!/PHDthesisKTH_ACUittenbogaard_Crime-Feb2014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Analysis Shelf Number: 140685 |
Author: Xiao, Wei Title: Migration, Crime and Search in Spatial Markets Summary: Search Frictions, Unemployment, and Housing in Cities: Theory and Policies We propose an urban search-matching model with land development. We characterize the steady-state equilibrium and then discuss the issue of efficiency. We find that the transportation and housing policies are more efficient if the unemployment rate is low, while the entry-cost policy is more efficient if the unemployment rate is high. Land Development, Search Frictions, and City Structure This paper analyzes the interactions between labor and housing (and land) markets in a city. Unemployment, the spatial structure of a city, land development, housing demand, prices of housing and land are all endogenously determined. Then, we characterize two different spatial configurations. To better understand how two equilibria are affected by land and labor market parameters, we implement a comparative steady state analysis. We further explored the effects of policies. Search for Jobs or Crimes? This paper develops a competitive search model where unemployed workers allocate their time between the search for legal jobs and opportunities for committing crimes. We analyze the effects of labor market policies and crime policies. We show that the market equilibrium is socially inefficient when there is crime. We also find that workers' individual choice of years of education is less than the socially efficient one. Rural-Urban Migration in Developing Countries: Labor Market Institutions and Policies The paper studies rural-urban migration under different labor market institutions in developing countries. Specifically, we consider two types of labor market institutions where workers in urban firms are unionized or not. We find that unionization of workers raises unemployment, urban wages, and rural employment, reduces rural wages and urban employment and increases inequality between the rural and the urban sector. We also compare two institutions under different policies. Details: Stockholm: Stockholm University, Department of Economics, 2014. 159p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed January 30, 2017 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:725920/FULLTEXT02.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Labor markets Shelf Number: 140759 |
Author: Iqbal, Asifa Title: Assessment of crime and safety issues in parks Summary: The aim of the thesis is to obtain a better understanding of the importance of parks for urban quality, particularly for safety. This is achieved in two ways; first, by assessing parks' impact on the perceived quality of the urban environment (whether it is incorporated into housing prices or not) in Stockholm. Second, the study investigates whether safety in parks may be assessed using principles of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) using a high-crime park in Stockholm's inner city. The thesis starts with an introduction to the theme, with a brief discussion of background theory, literature review, the study area and the methods. Then, it reports the results of the articles included in the thesis and discusses their main contributions to the field of research. A mixed methods approach utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Regression models and a Geographic Information System (GIS) were used in Paper I, which aims to clarify how park proximity affects housing prices and, when considering residential properties and park type, how crime rates in parks affect housing prices. Findings show that the further away an apartment is located from a park, the higher the discount on its price effect, but this effect (dependent on the park type), as an accumulated measure of parks, lowers prices or is negligible. Paper II assesses the use and adequacy of CPTED principles to guide the assessment of safety conditions of an urban park. The historical development of CPTED is presented followed by an analysis of a case study, Tantolunden, in Stockholm. Site observations, crime mapping, people count and interviews were conducted. Results show many entrances in this particular park defy the principles of access control and in turn impose limitations on park maintenance. Findings also show that interrupted sight lines create limited surveillance. The paper concludes by identifying the potentialities and challenges of CPTED principles when applied to safety in parks. Findings presented in this thesis are relevant for many stakeholders in society as results show the variation in crime and safety in urban parks, and the way they can be assessed and tackled. Details: Stockholm: Royal Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, 2015. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 30, 2017 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:861815/FULLTEXT04 Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Mapping Shelf Number: 146422 |
Author: Aho, Nikolas Title: Victimization, Prevalence, Health and Peritraumatic Reactions in Swedish Adolescents Summary: The aim of this thesis was to expand the knowledge of victimization in children and youth in Sweden. Victimization, prevalence, health and peritraumatic reactions were explored in a cross sectional, representative sample of 5,960 second grade high school students in Sweden. A computerized survey was developed and administered in class room setting. Lifetime victimization was found in 84.1% of the sample (m=83.0%, f=85.2%), and, in relation to the five domains, 66.4% had experienced conventional crime, 24% child maltreatment, 54.4% peer and sibling victimization, 21.8% sexual victimization, and 54% had experienced witness victimization. Females experienced significantly more child maltreatment, peer and sibling victimization, sexual victimization, and witnessed victimization, males more conventional crime (p<0.001). Using logistic regression risk factors for victimization were confirmed by a significant increase OR regarding gender, environment and lack of both parents. Symptoms (TSCC), were clearly associated with both victimizations per se and the number of victimizations. The results indicated a relatively linear increase in symptoms with an increase in number of events experienced. Mental health of the polyvictimized group was significantly worse than that of the non-polyvictimized group, with significantly elevated TSCC scores (t<0.001). Hierarchical regression analysis resulted in beta value reduction when polyvictimization was introduced supporting the independent effect on symptoms. Social anxiety was found in 10.2 % (n = 605) of the total group (n = 5,960). A significant gender difference emerged, with more females than males reporting social anxiety. Elevated PTSS was found in 14.8 % (n=883). Binary logistic regression revealed the highest OR for having had contact with child and adolescent psychiatry was found for the combined group with social anxiety and elevated PTSS (OR = 4.88, 95 % CI = 3.53 - 6.73, p<001). Significant associations were also found between use of child and adolescent psychiatry and female gender (OR = 2.05, 95 % CI = 1.70 - 2.45), Swedish birth origin (OR = 1.68, 95 % CI = 1.16-2.42) and living in a small municipality (OR = 1.33, 95 % CI = 1.02-1.73). Mediation models used peritraumatic reactions (PT): total, physiological arousal (PA), peritraumatic dissociation (PD), and intervention thoughts (IT) and JVQ and TSCC. Of the n=5,332 cases, a total of n=4,483 (84.1%) reported at least one victimizing event (m = 83.0%, f = 85.2%). Of these, 74.9% (n=3,360) also experienced a PT reaction of some kind. The effect mediated by PT tot was b= 0.479, BCa CI [0.342 - 0.640], representing a relatively small effect of 7.6%, 2=0.076, 95% BCa CI [0.054-0.101]. The mediating effect of JVQ on TSCC was mediated by PD more for males (b=0.394 BCa CI [0.170-0.636]) than for females (b=0.247, BCa CI [0.021-0.469]). The indirect effect of the JVQ on the TSCC total mediated by the different PT reactions was significant for PD (b=0.355, BCa CI [0.199-0.523]. In males a mediating effect of PD could be seen in the different models, while females had a more mixed result. IT did not show any indirect effect in males, but had a mixed effect for females. The empirical findings in this thesis lead to the conclusion that victimization is highly prevalent in children and youth and is related to health issues. The association of victimization on symptoms was mediated by peritraumatic reactions. Using a comprehensive instrument such as the JVQ provides the researcher or clinician the opportunity to acquire more complete measurement and also makes it possible to identify polyvictimization, a high-level category of events with severe impact on health. Details: Linköping, Sweden: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Linköping University, 2016. 145p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed January 30, 2017 at: https://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1047437/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Childhood Trauma Shelf Number: 146036 |
Author: Stjarnqvist, Anna Title: The Mysterious Mc-Clubs: A Content Analysis of the Structure, Symbols, Brotherhood, and Criminal Involvement Among Legal and Illegal Mc-Clubs Summary: Mc-clubs are marked as mysterious with dangerous motorcycles and deviant. Research has noticed both the illegal and legal clubs, but few have performed a comparison. The paper describes the similarities, differences, and the characteristics among legal and illegal mc-clubs. The comparison is done by looking at the structure, symbols, brotherhood, and criminal involvement. The depiction of the clubs is done by the help of Edwin M. Lemert's terms primary and secondary deviance and Lewis Yablonsky's definition of the social, delinquent, and violent gang. A content analysis based on 28 previous and current articles has been used to find the specific themes the clubs have in common and what characterizes and separates them. The clubs were shown to have similar structure, symbols and brotherhood, the difference lying in the intensity of the three components. The major difference is the criminal involvement. The illegal clubs reject the conventional society where the deviance is a form of identity, sharing it with like-minded in a violent setting. The legal clubs, however, conform and simultaneously deviate and have their own community with values and beliefs. Implications and future research is discussed. Details: Malmo, Sweden: Malmö högskola/Hälsa och samhälle, 2015. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Essary: Accessed February 4, 2017 at: https://dspace.mah.se/bitstream/handle/2043/19121/Anna%20Stj%C3%A4rnqvist%20The%20mysterious%20mc-clubs..pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Gangs Shelf Number: 146249 |
Author: Gerell, Manne Title: Neighborhoods without communities: Collective efficacy and crime in Malmö, Sweden Summary: This thesis explores the connection between neighborhoods and crime from a perspective of both opportunity theories and social disorganization theory. It consists of four papers primarily connected to two research questions with corresponding methods- and results sections. First, it considers how a neighborhood should be defined, which is studied in relation to arson and collective efficacy in two papers. The findings for collective efficacy are based on semi-structured interviews with residents and people working in four neighborhoods (N=39) and a small community survey in the same neighborhoods (N=691). The findings for arson are based on data over outdoors arson from the rescue services. These are studied in relation to artificial neighborhoods of different sizes and degrees of randomness. Results suggest that neighborhoods should be small to capture crime-relevant social processes. The second question examines the association of collective efficacy with crime, which is modeled net of controls in relation to violence and arson. Collective efficacy data was retrieved from a community survey in Malmö in 2012 (N=4051) and controls include concentrated disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability and urbanity. Here, results show a strong association with public environment violence but no association with outdoors arson on the neighborhood level. The thesis concludes with a suggestion to study crime by examining micro-place opportunity structures nested in (micro-) neighborhood social disorganization. Details: Malmo: Malmö University, Faculty of Health and Society, 2017. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed February 4, 2017 at: https://dspace.mah.se/bitstream/handle/2043/21668/21668_Gerell1_muep.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Arson Shelf Number: 140813 |
Author: Ohm, Meit Title: Geographic Profiling: A scientific tool or merely a guessing game? Summary: Geographic profiling is considered as one of the most controversial and innovative technologies used in criminal investigations today. The accuracy of the methodology has become a popular topic amongst scholars and has caused a heated debate regarding the success of geographic profiling. This study seeks to evaluate if geographic profiling is a useful tool for the police. Thus the aims of this study are to examine if the methodology is a viable tool during investigations and further to establish to what extent geographic profiling has been successfully applied within the area of property crime, in particular burglary investigations. By conducting a systematic literature review and key informant interviews this study found that geographic profiling can be a very useful tool for analysts. Further the results showed that geographic profiling systems are not always more accurate than simpler methods, however simpler strategies are not necessarily as consistent as a computerised system. Moreover the results indicate that geographic profiling can be applied during burglary investigations, if done correctly and by a trained investigator. The study concludes that geographic profiling is more than just a guessing game and if applied appropriately it will most likely identify the offender. Lastly the results and shortcomings of this study, including the need for future research is discussed. Details: Malmo: Malmö högskola/Hälsa och samhälle, 2016. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed February 4, 2017 at: https://dspace.mah.se/bitstream/handle/2043/20828/Bachelorthesis.MeitOhrn.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Burglary Shelf Number: 145873 |
Author: Sandkvist, Elin Title: The occurrence of diffusion of benefits. A systematic review of the circumstances behind a hot spot policing effect. Summary: Throughout the years it has been suggested that some places attract crime more than others. Those places are called hot spots of crime and the knowledge of them have contributed to the emergence of hot spot and targeted policing interventions. Hot spot policing is often discussed together with effects such as displacement of crime and diffusion of benefits. Through a systematic review of earlier studies that report or examine a hot spot policing effort or experiment this thesis aims to investigate the circumstances behind diffusion of benefits. No apparent commonalties or correlations are found between the different types of interventions regarding when diffusion of benefits occur. It can be concluded that the phenomenon is very complex. The results are analyzed and understood with the help of routine activity theory and rational choice theory. This thesis adds to the body of evidence that more studies with diffusion of benefits in focus need to be conducted. By understanding when, where and why diffusion of benefits occur the knowledge of crime prevention increases and also increases the knowledge of how to design the interventions to reach the best preventive gains. Details: Malmo: Malmö högskola/Hälsa och samhälle, 2013. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Master's Essay: Accessed February 4, 2017 at: https://dspace.mah.se/bitstream/handle/2043/16100/Magisteruppsats%20Elin%20Sandkvist%20final%20version.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Year: 2013 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Hotspots Shelf Number: 145874 |
Author: Axell, Sofia Title: Hate Crime 2015 Summary: Hate Crime 2015 presents statistics on police reports with identified hate crime motives in 2015 and self-reported victimisation of hate crime in 2013. Numbers presented for both the Swedish Crime Survey (NTU) and the statistics based on police reports are estimates, based on sample surveys Details: Stockholm: National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra), 2016. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Brå report 2016:15: Accessed February 13, 2017 at: https://www.bra.se/bra/bra-in-english/home/publications/archive/publications/2016-09-30-hate-crime-2015.html Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Statistics Shelf Number: 140915 |
Author: Andersson, Frida Title: Elements of IT in criminal activity and the ability of the justice system to handle these Summary: In its budget and policy specification for 2015, Brå was charged by the Government to report developments in the area regarding elements of IT in the crimes reported. The report was to cover developments since 2006 and contain both crimes against persons as well as other relevant types of crimes. Brå was also charged with analysing the expertise and capacity with respect to IT-related criminal activities and forensic IT investigations in the crime investigating operations. This included shedding light on defects and possibilities for improvement. Finally, Brå was asked to consider the possibilities of developing a system which provides authorities in the justice system with a statistical basis in order to monitor future developments regarding elements of IT in the crimes reported and, in such cases, proposing how the system should be designed. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), 2016. 11p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Brå report 2016:17: Accessed February 13, 2017 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.3da42c71157b439e92443e0b/1477568031106/2016_17_Elements_of_IT_in_criminal_activity.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Criminal Investigation Shelf Number: 140916 |
Author: Ring, Jonas Title: Mugging. A study regarding who is victimised, the offence, and the risk factors for robbery among young people Summary: The overall purpose is to map the characteristics and trends in respect of the robberies, as well as to contribute knowledge regarding who is victimised and who commits the offence. The study is based on information from Brå’s Swedish Crime Survey (Nationella trygghetsundersökning) (NTU), which is an annual survey regarding victimisation, addressed to individuals 16-79 years of age. Other material includes the Swedish School Survey on Crime (SUB), which is a self-reported study conducted among students in year nine. Information has also been obtained from a selection of police reports regarding mugging. The central enquiries are Are certain sociodemographic groups more exposed than others? Can one see any risk factors for exposure? How do mugging victims perceive their safety and what is their fear of exposure? When, where, and how are muggings committed? Is it possible to identify any factors which correlate with participation in robbery among young people? Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), 2016. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Brå report 2016:11.: Accessed February 13, 2017 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.3c6dfe1e15691e1603e1b8ae/1471874269840/2016_11_Muggings.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Assaults Shelf Number: 147845 |
Author: Vesterhav, Daniel Title: Criminal Networks and Groups: Police Perception of Power Structures and Criminal Markets Summary: "Organised crime" is an expression which is used freely in public debate in Sweden. However, the term encompasses a host of different phenomena and forms of organisation, and the import of "organised crime" thus varies depending on who uses the term and how, and when, the term is used. This report presents a theoretical framework – a conceptual structure – for the various forms of networks, groups, and phenomena that usually fall under the larger "umbrella" known as organised crime. The purpose of the categorisation is to make it simpler to describe and understand power structures, criminal markets, and the criminality which is carried out by different forms of networks, constellations, and groups. The second and third parts of the report apply the conceptual structure to various forms of organised crime on the basis of some 60 interviews with police employees and a review of some 60 intelligence reports. This means that the descriptions of organised crime provided in the report articulate the perceptions of the interviewed police employees. The fourth and final part of the report provides overall reflections. An appendix to the report sets forth police employees' ideas for measures against various forms of organised crime. These are based on three seminars which were conducted with police employees in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) , 2016. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: English Summpary of BRA report 2016:12: Accessed February 17, 2017 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.4a33c027159a89523b11c65d/1485182325798/2016_12_Criminal_networks_and_groups.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Criminal Networks Shelf Number: 146982 |
Author: Hradilova-Selin, Klara Title: Reducing isolation in detention: Situation and proposals Summary: Each year, between 9,000 and 10,000 persons in Sweden are held in detention. The average detention period is two months and, in 2015, almost 500 persons were in detention for at least six months. Slightly more than two-thirds of the persons in detention are subject to restrictions which isolate them from both the outside world and from other persons in detention. Of the persons who were in detention in 2015, 140 were children between 15 and 17 years of age. They are customarily detained for a shorter period than adults and, on the average, for one month. On the other hand, it is more common for this group than for adults to be subject to restrictions – specifically, in a full 81% of the cases. Since the 1990s, Sweden has been the object of criticism from both the UN and the Council of Europe because such a significant number of persons in detention are in isolation by virtue of a decision regarding restrictions. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has also criticised Sweden's isolation of children who are placed in detention and custody, and has exhorted Sweden to immediately cease isolation for all children and to amend its legislation to prohibit the isolation of children. In this light, the Government appointed several committees during 2015 in respect of detention and the conditions in Swedish detention centres. The Detention and Restrictions Committee (Häktes- och restriktionsutredningen) was appointed for the purpose of submitting proposals aimed at reducing the use of detention and restrictions. The committee submitted its report in August of 2016. In addition, Brå was instructed to study detention and conditions in detention centres, which is the subject of this report. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), 2017. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Brå report 2017:6: Accessed February 17, 2017 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.4a33c027159a89523b15ded3/1486540817077/2017_6_Reducing_isolation_in_detention.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Detention Centers Shelf Number: 141067 |
Author: Gronqvist, Hans Title: Early Lead Exposure and Outcomes in Adulthood Summary: We exploit the phase-out of leaded gasoline to isolate the impact of early childhood lead exposure on outcomes in adulthood. Combining data on school performance, high school graduation, crime, earnings, and cognitive and non-cognitive skills with a novel measure of lead exposure, we follow 800,000 children from birth into adulthood. We find that reduced lead exposure improves the adult outcomes, particularly among boys. Below certain thresholds, the relationship becomes much weaker. Non-cognitive traits (externalizing behavior, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) follow a similar non-linear dose-response pattern and seem to be the key mediators between early lead exposure and adult outcomes. Details: Unpublished paper, 2017. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 18, 2017 at: https://3e3a16a6-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/nilssonjanpeter/home/jpnsstorage/Lead2016.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cprzCPaZUlsm4zP4x1b0X0bhuBKKGn_Xdas9kiheMH2OfqCbD70MowrZRb7wVYTUBC_2PVfaNcV7eTJBnT-uh6HMceqCFycfxoRGBvl9WjUf9PhXxiktO2fm6J6-cWUDbNNPAg68Kho7zZHkL0gr_Sn7AT7M1C7u1fj9PkoRLhXBbhYm0IOPrKMGZteyZ3SPHWLFF0KrieQhYOQdfdNCMeE-ZoOo26wxBCIwrSxnvDcxJ3XJ6M%3D&attredirects=0 Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Aggressive Behavior Shelf Number: 144497 |
Author: Iqbal, Asifa Title: Property Values, Parks and Crime: A Hedonic Analysis in Stockholm, Sweden Summary: The aim of this study is to investigate the importance of urban parks in Stockholm, capital of Sweden, and to find evidence of whether people in Stockholm are willing to pay extra for parks when purchasing an apartment. This study hypothesized that people’s willingness to pay for urban parks and green spaces is affected by crime. The methodology had two stages. An extensive field work was performed in a selected number of parks to help characterize the parks in Stockholm. This was later followed by the analysis of 2008’s apartment sales using hedonic modelling combined with Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques. Results suggest that the effect of parks vary by park type. An aggregated measure of parks lower apartment prices but the effect turns out to be positive in some cases, or insignificant, when parks are broken down by types. For instance, parks with cultural features, forest feeling, skating and features of national interest increase apartment prices. However, if park have ball games, marina, boating facilities, skate board facilities and frequent social events – these features tend to reduce property values. These findings support the idea that the impact of park on property value depends on the type of park. Contrary to was expected, the park impact on prices does not seem to be affected by seasonal variations (e.g., summer versus winter), only individual months seem to affect prices. More interestingly, crime affects the quality of parks and, in its turn, the relationship between parks and prices. Results show that parks that originally show a positive impact on prices may affect prices negatively if they have relatively high rates of violence and vandalism. The study finalizes with a discussion these results and their implication for future research. Details: Stockholm: KTH Department of urban Planning and Environment, 2012. 69p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed March 23, 2017 at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277213245_Property_values_parks_and_crime_A_hedonic_analysis_in_Stockholm_Sweden Year: 2012 Country: Sweden Keywords: Parks and Crime Shelf Number: 144564 |
Author: Olofsson, Niclas Title: Violence through the life cycle: A public health problem Summary: Background: Violence has probably always been part of the human experience. Its impact can be seen, in various forms, in all parts of the world. In 1996, WHO:s Forty-Ninth World Health Assembly adopted a resolution , declaring violence a major and growing public health problem around the world. Public health work centers around health promotion and disease prevention activities in the population and public health is an expression of the health status of the population taking into account both the level and the distribution of health. Exposure to violence can have many aspects, differing throughout the life course — deprivation of autonomy, financial exploitation, psychological and physical neglect or abuse — but all types share common characteristics: the use of destructive force to control others by depriving them of safety, freedom, health and, in too many instances, life; the epidemic proportions of the problem, particularly among vulnerable groups; a devastating impact on individuals, families, neighborhoods, communities, and society. Methods: Three different data sources were used in the four articles, three cross-sectional studies (“Life and Health in Norrland” and “Health on Equal Terms 2004 and 2006”) and one longitudinal (“Level-of-Living Survey”). Results: We present an important picture of the strong association between exposure to violence and ill health through the life cycle. A population-based study showed an increased risk of poorer physical and psychological health among boys and girls aged 0-18, as reported by their mothers exposed to violence. Further, a strong association between those exposed to violence and physical and mental ill health was demonstrated in young adults aged 18-25, also after adjusting for possible confounders, specifically for women. Even in an elder group aged 65-84, representative results showed an extensive negative health outcome panorama caused by fear of crime and exposure to abuse both in elderly men and women. Lastly, in trying to provide additional empirical support for the association between exposure to violence and ill health the prospective study demonstrated that violence exposure in adolescence and young adulthood presented a negative association to severe illness burden in adulthood for women but not men. Conclusion: Exposure to violence among both men and women is an important risk factor for ill health and should receive greater attention in public health work. A strong association between violence and various health outcomes was demonstrated in different time periods through the life cycle. Details: Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press, 2012. 94p. Source: Internet Resource: Linköping University Medical Dissertations No. 1307: Dissertation: Accessed March 24, 2017 at: http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:524716/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Sweden Keywords: Health Shelf Number: 144572 |
Author: Rostami, Amir Title: Criminal Organizing: Studies in the sociology of organized crime Summary: What organized crime is and how it can be prevented are two of the key questions in both organized crime research and criminal policy. However, despite many attempts, organized crime research, the criminal justice system and criminal policy have failed to provide a shared and recognized conceptual definition of organized crime, which has opened the door to political interpretations. Organized crime is presented as an objective reality—mostly based on anecdotal empirical evidence and generic descriptions—and has been understood, as being intrinsically different from social organization, and this has been a justification for treating organized crime conceptually separately.In this dissertation, the concept of organized crime is deconstructed and analyzed. Based on five studies and an introductory chapter, I argue that organized crime is an overarching concept based on an abstraction of different underlying concepts, such as gang, mafia, and network, which are in turn semi-overarching and overlapping abstractions of different crime phenomena, such as syndicates, street-gangs, and drug networks. This combination of a generic concept based on underlying concepts, which are themselves subject to similar conceptual difficulties, has given rise to a conceptual confusion surrounding the term and the concept of organized crime. The consequences of this conceptual confusion are not only an issue of semantics, but have implications for our understanding of the nature of criminal collaboration as well as both legal and policy consequences. By combining different observers, methods and empirical materials relating to dimensions of criminal collaboration, I illustrate the strong analogies that exist between forms of criminal collaboration and the theory of social organization.I argue in this dissertation that criminal organizing is not intrinsically different from social organizing. In fact, the dissertation illustrates the existence of strong analogies between patterns of criminal organizing and the elements of social organizations. But depending on time and context, some actions and forms of organizing are defined as criminal, and are then, intentionally or unintentionally, presumed to be intrinsically different from social organizing. Since the basis of my argument is that criminal organizing is not intrinsically different from social organizing, I advocate that the study of organized crime needs to return to the basic principles of social organization in order to understand the emergence of, and the underlying mechanism that gives rise to, the forms of criminal collaboration that we seek to explain. To this end, a new general analytical framework, “criminal organizing”, that brings the different forms of criminal organizations and their dimensions together under a single analytical tool, is proposed as an example of how organizational sociology can advance organized crime research and clarify the chaotic concept of organized crime. Details: Stockholm, SWE: Stockholm University, 2016. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: STOCKHOLM STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY, CRIMINAL ORGANIZING, NEW SERIES 62: Accessed March 24, 2017 at: https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:921818/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Criminal Gangs Shelf Number: 144573 |
Author: Borg, Anton Title: On Descriptive and Predictive Models for Serial Crime Analysis Summary: Law enforcement agencies regularly collect crime scene information. There exists, however, no detailed, systematic procedure for this. The data collected is affected by the experience or current condition of law enforcement officers. Consequently, the data collected might differ vastly between crime scenes. This is especially problematic when investigating volume crimes. Law enforcement officers regularly do manual comparison on crimes based on the collected data. This is a time-consuming process; especially as the collected crime scene information might not always be comparable. The structuring of data and introduction of automatic comparison systems could benefit the investigation process. This thesis investigates descriptive and predictive models for automatic comparison of crime scene data with the purpose of aiding law enforcement investigations. The thesis first investigates predictive and descriptive methods, with a focus on data structuring, comparison, and evaluation of methods. The knowledge is then applied to the domain of crime scene analysis, with a focus on detecting serial residential burglaries. This thesis introduces a procedure for systematic collection of crime scene information. The thesis also investigates impact and relationship between crime scene characteristics and how to evaluate the descriptive model results. The results suggest that the use of descriptive and predictive models can provide feedback for crime scene analysis that allows a more effective use of law enforcement resources. Using descriptive models based on crime characteristics, including Modus Operandi, allows law enforcement agents to filter cases intelligently. Further, by estimating the link probability between cases, law enforcement agents can focus on cases with higher link likelihood. This would allow a more effective use of law enforcement resources, potentially allowing an increase in clear-up rates. Details: Karlskrona: Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2014. 221 p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed March 24, 2017 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A833995&dswid=-9246 Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Burglary Shelf Number: 144582 |
Author: Christensen, Tina Wilchen Title: A Question of Participation -- Disengagement from the Extremist Right. A Case study from Sweden Summary: The thesis consists of a collection of six articles: Tina Wilchen Christensen (2014) 'To Study the Significance of Social Interaction for Former Right-wing Extremists Wanting to Disengage: Doing Participant Observation and Qualitative Interviews' in SAGE Research Methods Cases Chapter, http://srmo.sagepub.com/view/methods-case-studies- 2014/n140.xml Tina Wilchen Christensen (2015) 'The Challenge of Researching neo-Nazis Struggling to Leave the White Power Movement' in Deuchar, Ross and Bhopal, Kalwant, (eds.) The complexities and dilemmas of researching marginalised groups, Routledge Tina Wilchen Christensen (2015) 'Tidligere ekstremisters erfaring som nyttig viden - at losrive sig fra en ekstremistisk gruppe er en kompliceret affaer in Social Kritik, Tidsskrift for social analyse & debat nr. 142 - juni 2015 and an a English version; How Extremist Experiences become Valuable Knowledge in EXIT Programmes in Journal for Deradicalisation Summer/15, no. 3 http://journals.sfu.ca/jd/index.php/jd/article/view/18 Tina Wilchen Christensen (2015) 'When Good Intentions are not Enough - A Successful Mentor-Mentee Relation requires a Deliberate Practice' in Psyke & Logos (1) Tina Wilchen Christensen (2014) 'Eine schwarz-weie Weltanschauung durch Grautne ergnzen Wie ehemalige Rechtsextremisten durch Vorbilder und soziale Untersttzung zum Wandel ihrer Identitt angeregt werden knnen' Translate from 'Adding a Grey Tone to a Black and White World View How Role Models and Social Encouragement can lead Former Right-Wing Extremists to Transform Their Identity' in Rieker, Peter (eds.) Hilfe zum Ausstieg? Anstze und Erfahrungen professioneller Angebote zum Ausstieg aus rechtsextremen Szenen, Weinheim/Basel: Beltz Juventa, Weinheim/Basel. Tina Wilchen Christensen (2015) 'The Continuous Struggle of BecomingSomebody - Former Right-Wing Extremists' continued Process of Selftransformation and social re-positioning after an exit programme' (unpublished) Details: Roskilde: Roskilde Universitet. 2015. 301p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 23, 2017 at: http://forskning.ruc.dk/site/files/56384428/twc_fin_ny.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: De-radicalization Shelf Number: 145743 |
Author: Karlander, David Title: Fleeting graffiti: Backjumps, mobilities and metro semiotics Summary: This article discusses mobility as a semiotic device. Drawing mainly on examples from Stockholm, it analyses backjumps, a genre of train graffiti that inventively makes use of various forms of movement. The social, spatial existence of backjumps is underlined by mobility, from the moment they are created on temporary stationary trains until the point they are removed as part of regimented semiotic ordering of public space. As backjumps move through the metro system, their appearances and disappearances rework the visual composition of a number of interlinked spaces, briefly succeeding in transgressing the semiotic regimentation of public space. For properly grasping these semiotic transformations, mobility needs to be placed at the forefront of inquiry. Building on lines of thought from human geography and spatially interested sociolinguistics, the analysis demonstrates that a sensitization to the workings of mobility is apt for creating a more fine-grained understanding of the interplay between space and semiotic practice. In this vein, it seeks to introduce further nuance to a sociolinguistics that has focused extensively on the notion of landscape. Details: Tilburg, Netherlands: Tilburg University, 2015. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies, Paper 161: Accessed July 29, 2017 at: https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/upload/417421b2-2bbf-40b9-b3aa-2ebd37ad123e_TPCS_161_Karlander.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Graffiti Shelf Number: 146599 |
Author: Gronqvist, Hans Title: Childhood Lead Exposure and Criminal Behavior: Lessons from the Swedish Phase-Out of Leaded Gasoline Summary: This paper examines the effect of childhood lead exposure on crime using population based register data. We follow all children in Sweden for more than twenty years and observe criminal behavior both before and after the peak of the age-crime profile. By exploiting the variation in childhood lead exposure induced by the phase-out of leaded gasoline, we show that the sharp drop in lead exposure reduced crime by between 7 and 14 percent on average. At the relatively low levels of exposure considered, the analysis reveals a nonlinear relationship, indicating the existence of a threshold below which further reductions early childhood lead exposure no longer affect crime. The impact is moreover largest among children in low-income families Details: Stockholm: Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, 2014. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper 9/2014: Accessed August 23, 2017 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:756781/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Aggressive Behavior Shelf Number: 146880 |
Author: Poutvaara, Panu Title: Hooliganism in the Shadow of the 9/11Terrorist Attack and the Tsunami: Do Police Reduce Group Violence? Summary: This paper isolates the causal effect of policing on group violence, using unique panel data on self-reported crime by soccer and ice hockey hooligans. The problem of reverse causality from violence to policing is solved by two drastic reallocations of the Stockholm Supporter Police unit to other activities following the 9/11 terrorist attack in September 2001 and the Tsunami catastrophe in December 2004. Difference-in-difference analysis reveals that Stockholm-related hooligan violence increased dramatically during these periods. Details: Munich: CESifo Group Munich, 2006. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper Series No. 1882: Accessed September 9, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=956275 Year: 2006 Country: Sweden Keywords: Civil Disobedience Shelf Number: 147196 |
Author: Hulusjo, Anna Title: The Multiplicities of Prostitution Experience: narratives about power and resistance Summary: This thesis is not primarily about 'the rights and wrongs of prostitution', at least not as they are conveyed in the prostitution debate, rather it aims to shift the focus from what prostitution is (work or violence, empowerment or exploitation), the topic of most prostitution debate, to how prostitution operates. That is, how power relations, knowledges, discourses and practices interconnect in making particular forms of prostitution and particular ways of making sense of prostitution experience possible. The study is situated on the feminist narrative field and is constituted of interviews with twenty women with prostitution experience. With a genealogical approach to narrative analysis the participants' narratives are not treated as reflections of an assumed prostitution 'reality', but rather there is an exploration of what the participants do as they narrate their experience, how they, through their narratives, construct their identities and make sense of their experiences and their lives. By engaging with the participants' narratives, the power and domination of the institution of prostitution and the multitude of tactics that the participants employed in order to negotiate, resist and destabilize power and domination were explored. The participants' narratives were both entangled with and positioned against dominant narratives about prostitution and 'the prostitute'. They contained complexities, contradictions and multiple meanings; prostitution was described as both enabling and constraining, as a means of resistance and as an effect of power. The participants spoke of how the institution of prostitution produced different experiences of being constituted as a 'commodified body', an 'appropriate target for violence/undeserving victim' and a stigmatized identity. Depending on their social location and personal biography the participants were more or less able to manage the emotional and physical risks that prostitution involved. The narratives revealed how prostitution, as it currently operates, is conditioned by intersecting structures of social inequality. Details: Malm, Sweden: Malmo University, 2013. 420p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed September 15, 2017 at: https://dspace.mah.se/handle/2043/16013 Year: 2013 Country: Sweden Keywords: Prostitutes Shelf Number: 147335 |
Author: Nordgren, Johan Title: Making Drugs Ethnic: Khat and minority drug use in Sweden Summary: The aim of this dissertation is to study how discourses and problem representations have made some drugs and some forms of drug use into "ethnic problems" in Sweden and in Scandinavia. The primary example of such a process discussed in the dissertation concerns the use of the psychoactive and criminalized plant khat. The activity of associating a drug with ethnic minorities is defined in the dissertation as "making drugs ethnic". By making drugs ethnic, Scandinavian welfare state institutions treat certain psychoactive substances and their users as primarily ethnic rather than as social or medical problems. Processes of making drugs ethnic thus have implications for social work practice, since understandings and proposed solutions to "drug abuse among immigrants" have been based largely on notions of ethnic or cultural difference. It has frequently been proposed that problematic khat use can be solved by increased use of "cultural competence" within social work and drug treatment institutions. This development is discussed in the dissertation as an over-emphasis of ethnicity and culture, and notions underlying this development are problematized. The dissertation contains four articles. The first analyzes discourses about khat use in Swedish daily newspapers during the period between 1986 and 2012. The article focuses on people who spoke out against khat use in the media, an activity which is described as moral entrepreneurship. Khat use was described as a "Somali" problem and as a serious threat to the Somali immigrant "community" in Sweden. The second article analyzes khat use discourses as presented in official reports evaluating projects against khat use in the Scandinavian countries. In these reports, khat use was described as causing unemployment, lack of integration and relationship problems among Somali immigrants, and the main proposed solution to the "problem" of khat use was cultural competence. The "Somali community" was positioned as in part responsible for reducing khat use, and there was a tendency to over-emphasize cultural explanations for problematic khat use. Article three takes a broader view of the notion of "drug abuse among immigrants", a phenomenon that emerged in Sweden during the late 1980s and was in focus during the 1990s in drug treatment, social work and government contexts. There was an attempt to make the "drug-abusing immigrant" into a specific kind of client or patient in knowledge production initiatives. "Immigrants" were seen as introducing new drugs and ways of using them, creating an intermingling of drug use patterns, and being extraordinarily vulnerable. The fourth article analyzes discourses about khat expressed by persons who were active in Somali ethno-national civil society organizations in Sweden, interviewed during fieldwork carried out between 2014 and 2016. The impetus for this study was to analyze how those representatives viewed the dis-cursive association between the ethnic group they represent, and khat use. The interviewees both talked through and "talked back" to dominant discourses about khat use. Khat use was described as a problem, but khat was also seen as a drug that could be both used and "abused". The interviewees used discourses more related to use of drugs in general, rather than about ethnicity and culture. They were aware of khat having been made ethnic, and rejected this association. Details: Malmo, Sweden: Malmo University, Faculty of Health and Society, 2017. 238p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed September 16, 2017 at: https://dspace.mah.se/handle/2043/22314 Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addiction Shelf Number: 147356 |
Author: Doyle, Maria Title: Feelings of Safety in the Presence of the Police, Security Guards and Police Volunteers Summary: Uniformed presences are thought to create feelings of safety in people. However, do different uniformed people contribute to the same amount of safety and are there differences dependent on the situation? The present study examined the association between various types of uniformed presence and people's feelings of safety through a questionnaire among 352 respondents (18-86 years) (49.1 % women). The questionnaire contained pictures of relatively safe and unsafe situations with or without uniformed presence. The respondents estimated how safe they thought they would feel in these situations with and without two police officers, six police officers, a police car, two security guards, or two police volunteers. The results showed that uniformed presence does not increase feelings of safety in an already relatively safe situation, making patrol unnecessary. In relatively unsafe situations however, all types of uniformed presence increase feelings of safety. Foot patrolling police increased feelings of safety the most. Security guards and police volunteers created approximately the same amount of safety; making police volunteers a cost-effective alternative, although some situation, gender and age differences were found. All types of foot patrol were better than vehicle patrol (with some gender differences), making non-police groups an alternative to vehicle patrol. Details: Orebro, Sweden: Orebro University, 2014. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed November 4, 2017 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:736708/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Fear of Crime Shelf Number: 148029 |
Author: Fransson, Annika Pallvik Title: Reinforcing restraining orders using electronic monitoring Summary: Electronic monitoring has been used for over two decades in connection with coercive criminal procedural measures or the sanctioning of criminal activity. In Sweden, electronic monitoring has been in use since 1994, firstly as an alternative to a short prison term (front door), and now also as a means of helping inmates to make the transition back to life in the community at the end of a term in prison (back door). Monitoring is based on voluntary participation in the programme, but is backed with the threat of incarceration if the regulations associated with the electronic monitoring programme are breached. Over the years, the technology has been further developed. From only providing the opportunity to check whether an individual is present at or absent from specific places, satellite technology is now available that allows for continuous monitoring of the movements made by any given individual. The emergence of these new technological advances created an interest in using electronic monitoring for other objectives within the penal justice system. One such objective involves reinforcing restraining orders. However, caution is needed when it comes to the use of electronic monitoring for new purposes. At the request of the Swedish Government, the National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsforebyggande radet Bra) has examined the possibility of using electronic monitoring to reinforce restraining orders. This document presents the technical and legal factors that should be taken into consideration when contemplating the use of electronic monitoring for crime prevention purposes. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2005. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 13, 2017 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.cba82f7130f475a2f1800025791/1371914734425/2005_reinforcing_restraining_orders_using_electronic_monitoring.pdf Year: 2005 Country: Sweden Keywords: Alternatives to Incarceration Shelf Number: 148155 |
Author: Ahlqvist, Ann-Marie Title: Follow the Money: An Anthology of Asset-oriented Law Enforcement Summary: Asset-oriented law enforcement is a collective term for all forms of action taken against property arising from criminal activity. The basic strategy for asset-oriented law enforcement is to remove the possibility of enriching crime and block illegitimate gain. If the driving force for economic and serious organized crime is money - and what money can buy - the practicing against crime should have the same focus. In order for this strategy to be successful, appropriate tools are needed. The authors provide their view on the asset-oriented approach and can contribute to disseminating knowledge about it in a single volume. This anthology is intended to function as a handbook where several key actors help to spread knowledge about how to deal with these issues. The Swedish Social Insurance Agency, the Swedish Enforcement Authority, and the Swedish Tax Agency is already collaborating with the Swedish Police and other law enforcement agencies. Access investigators have become a new occupational group besides police officers, prosecutors and tax attorneys. To "Follow the money" has become an increasingly more important field within criminology. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra) , 2014. 172p. Source: Internet Resource: English version of report 2014:10: Accessed November 15, 2017 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.4c494ddd15e9438f8ad5198c/1510318116552/2017_Follow_the_money.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Asset Forfeiture Shelf Number: 148187 |
Author: Dymne, Carl Title: Hot Spots of Robberies in the City of Malmo: A Qualitative Study of Five Hot Spots, Using the Routine Activity Theory, and Crime Pattern Theory Summary: Studies about hot spots of crimes have found that crimes are clustered; few places have many crimes. There is a consensus among criminologists that opportunities for crimes are important when explaining hot spots, at some places, there are more opportunities than at other places. The same applies for hot spots of robberies. Most studies done on the subject are quantitative, relatively little is done using a qualitative approach. Furthermore, little research is done in a Swedish or Scandinavian context. To fill these research gaps this study use participant observations to research five hot spots of robberies in Malmo. The research will try to answer which characteristics are important to explain why the places are hot spots and what the similarities and differences there between the places are. This will be analyzed using the Routine Activity Theory and the Crime Pattern Theory. The findings suggest that place-specific things are important to explain why the places are hot spots, but when using the theories several places are similar. Details: Malmo, Sweden: Malmo University, 2017. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed November 17, 2017 at: http://muep.mau.se/bitstream/handle/2043/23167/Hot%20spots%20of%20robberies%20final%20product.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Analysis Shelf Number: 148221 |
Author: Nordmarker, Anki Title: Graffiti - For Joy and Confirmation. Motivational aspects, triggering and inhibiting factors, and emotional satisfactions in graffiti: The creative-interactive dimension of vandalism Summary: The purpose of the present dissertation is to achieve a deeper understanding about what motivates young people to commit vandalism in general and scrawl-graffiti in particular, and what this propensity provides in the form of satisfaction and/or further motivation. The present thesis consists of two experimental studies, one questionnaire study, and one interview study, of a total of 515 participants (287 male, 219 female, 9 missing gender). The experimental studies show that alcohol and frustration in combination increases the risk for vandalism to occur, and also the degree of vandalism, destructivity and aggression. The questionnaire study demonstrated that impulsiveness presents a significant personality trait related to vandalism in general, as well as to scrawl-graffiti, but whereas vandalism is predicted by non-planning impulsiveness, scrawl-graffiti is predicted by motor impulsiveness. Further, the interview study indicated that there are distinctions between vandalism, graffiti and scrawl, where vandalism is assessed as destructive behavior, often conducted in an affective and destructive mood, while graffiti is interactive and creative, conducted in a creative mood. Scrawl might be destructive or creative, depending on the context, how it expresses itself, and whether or not it is created in a vandalism mood or in a graffiti mood. Additionally, The Equity Control Model of Vandalism (Baron & Fisher, 1984) was used as an explanatory model to understand the complexity of vandalism. The model was complemented with two new primary moderators; Personality traits and Emotional state, and a new dimension of vandalism; the Creative-Interactive dimension of Vandalism, and finally resulted in an extended Equity Control Model of Vandalism (eECM 2016). Details: Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, 2016. 88p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed November 28, 2017 at: https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/48363/1/gupea_2077_48363_1.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden Keywords: Graffiti Shelf Number: 148521 |
Author: Hennen, Ina Title: Hot Spot 'Knarkrondellen': An Evaluation of Police Interventions in Malmo Summary: 'Knarkrondellen', which translates to 'Drug Roundabout', is a known hot spot for drug trading in Malm and the police have implemented several measures to prevent the narcotic crimes. This paper sets out to investigate the impact that the police interventions, namely enhanced police foot patrols, improved street lighting and the installation of a surveillance camera, have on the crime rates and the fear of crime at the roundabout. In a multi-method approach, quantitative data from the police register and police surveys as well as qualitative observations and interviews with the residents are analyzed. The findings show that the police interventions did not reach the desired preventative effect in the given study period and indicate the occurrence of displacement. The citizens' feeling of safety and perception of the problems did not change significantly as a result of the interventions. Overall, the surveys and interviews suggest that the police are on the right track; however, a longer follow-up period is needed in order to examine the long-term effects of the intervention measures. Additionally, an enhanced involvement of the community in the fight against drug crimes appears necessary. Details: Malmo, Sweden: Malmo University, 2017. 49p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed December 6, 2017 at: http://muep.mau.se/bitstream/handle/2043/23176/Hot%20Spot%20%27Knarkrondellen%27.%20An%20Evaluation%20of%20Police%20Interventions%20in%20Malm%C3%B6..pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: CCTV Shelf Number: 148735 |
Author: Dobbie, Will Title: The Intergenerational Effects of Parental Incarceration Summary: We estimate the causal effect of parental incarceration on children's medium-run outcomes using administrative data from Sweden. Our empirical strategy exploits exogenous variation in parental incarceration from the random assignment of criminal defendants to judges with different incarceration tendencies. We find that the incarceration of a parent in childhood leads to significant increases in teen crime and pregnancy and a significant decrease in early-life employment. The effects are concentrated among children from the most disadvantaged families, where teen crime increases by 18 percentage points, teen pregnancy increases by 8 percentage points, and employment at age 20 decreases by 28 percentage points. In contrast, there are no detectable effects among children from more advantaged families. These results imply that the incarceration of parents with young children may increase the intergenerational persistence of poverty and criminal behavior, even in affluent countries with extensive social safety nets. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper 24186: Accessed January 17, 2018 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w24186 Year: 2018 Country: Sweden Keywords: Children of Prisoners Shelf Number: 148844 |
Author: Iqbal, Asifa Title: Park Matters: Studies on Safety and Property Values Summary: This study develops a better understanding of the nature of urban parks from a safety perspective in two international contexts. To achieve this aim, the study is divided into two geographical scales (a macro scale and a micro scale) that test a set of quantitative and qualitative research methods. The macro-scale analysis provides an overall view of the effects of parks in the neighbourhood and at the city level. A particular focus is given to the impact of parks on housing prices. Overall, the findings show that parks function as an amenity that contributes to urban quality, which in turn influences property prices in Stockholm. However, this effect depends on a number of factors such as park type, location, and the level of safety and security of the parks. For instance, grass parks (GPs) and park blocks (PBs) are more desirable than landscape parks (LPs) and neighbourhood parks (NPs) in Stockholm. The findings also show that parks located at or near the city centre tend to have a more positive impact on apartment prices than parks located in the citys periphery. Safety also matters: Parks embedded in area with high-crime rates are less valued than in areas with low-crime rates, after controlling for park types and other park and area features. The microscale of study focuses on parks as a unit of analysis and looks at the environment of parks and how it triggers crime and affects people's safety. The first analysis is based on whether-and, if so, how-park environments affect safety (crime occurrence) using the principles of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) as an inventory tool in a park in an area with a high-crime rate in Stockholm, Sweden. Building on the methodology from the first study, the second study investigates the nature of women-only parks (WOPs) in Karachi, Pakistan, by looking at both the environment of the parks and the users' and non-users' perceptions of safety. Regardless of context, the findings show that the safety conditions of a park are highly associated with the park's environment (design and management features). Of importance to park safety are park size in relation to the number of access routes (entrance and exit points), the opportunities for surveillance in relation to the maintenance and the lighting conditions in parks. A clear lesson is that a CPTED-informed park design promotes guardianship and therefore should be encouraged, regardless of whether it is located in Stockholm or Karachi. However, the urban context does matter to park safety conditions and is highly dependent on the local, city-wide, and national contexts in which the park is embedded. The results of this thesis are relevant to various stakeholders as they show the characteristics of parks from a safety perspective, their effects on neighbourhoods, and the ways in which they can be assessed using both quantitative and qualitative methods-all essential aspects of urban sustainable planning. Details: Stockholm: Real Estate and Construction Management, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, 2017. 101p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed February 13, 2018 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1156860/FULLTEXT02 Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Mapping Shelf Number: 149104 |
Author: Meiden, Sara van der Title: Police working methods to prevent serial partner violence - focus on the perpetrator of violence Summary: In the 2017 budget bill, the Government established the goal of reducing the number of women who are exposed to violence in intimate relationships. The importance of the Swedish Police conducting proactive, well-considered, and structured crime prevention work in attaining this goal is emphasised. Bra's instruction for this report can be divided into four parts. Bra must: identify and compile police approaches and working methods for preventing men's serial partner violence; determine which of these are promising; determine whether they can be implemented into Swedish police working methods; and estimate which costs would be entailed in working according to the promising methods and working methods. Details: Stockholm: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra), 2018. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: English version of report 2017:13: Accessed April 4, 2018 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.10aae67f160e3eba62920340/1518706493393/2017_13_Police_working_methods_summary.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Sweden Keywords: Abusive Men Shelf Number: 149674 |
Author: Soderstrom, Maria Title: Swedish Crime Survey 2017 Summary: In 2017, two parallel Swedish Crime Surveys were conducted, the SCS - Standard and the SCS - Local. The SCS - Standard has been conducted with the same data collection method and sample as previously, while the SCS - Local has been conducted with a different method, involving another sample, revised questionnaires, and different data collection method. The technical report (Bra 2018) contains detailed accounts of the ways in which the surveys were conducted. As from 2018, the method which is used in what is presently called the SCS - Local will be the new standard method. This summary refers only to results from the SCS - Standard, although this year's report also comprises results from the SCS - Local. This is because the summary focuses on trends over time and the SCS - Local has only been conducted once. In general, however, a comparison of the two shows the SCS - Local reflects higher levels of victimisation and unsafety than the SCS - Standard. In addition, the SCS - Local indicates that a smaller percentage of the population has a high degree of confidence in thecriminal justice system as well as positive experience from contacts with the criminal justice system than is indicated by the SCS - Standard. The SCS - Standard has been conducted since 2006. In 2017, approximately 11,600 persons responded to the questions in the SCS - Standard, which is a 59 per cent response rate to the survey. Most participated in the SCS - Standard through telephone interviews, but a smaller percentage participated through posted questionnaires or internet questionnaires. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra), 2018. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report 2018:1: Accessed April 4, 2018 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.10aae67f160e3eba6292cc95/1520607741267/2018_Swedish_Crime_Survey_2017.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Statistics Shelf Number: 149686 |
Author: Holmberg, Stina Title: Reintegration assistance after prison: Follow-up on the Prison and Probation Service's work with special reintegration assistance measure Summary: Within three years of release from prison, two out of five persons commit a new offence sanctionable by prison or probation. For most of these individuals, recidivism occurs within several months after they have left prison (Bra 2017). In order to reduce the risk that individuals who are released commit new offences in connection with release, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service can grant reintegration assistance at the end of their sentence. These measures smooth the transition between prison and life at liberty, and entail a gradual reduction of the Prison and Probation Service's control over the client. The four so-called special reintegration assistance measures are: - day release; - treatment period; - halfway house; - enhanced day release. Bra has been instructed by the Government to follow up on the Prison and Probation Service's work with reintegration assistance. In conjunction with this instruction, the Government instructed the Prison and Probation Service at the end of 2015 to develop and strengthen its work with reintegration assistance. Bra's instruction requires us to follow up on the progress of the Prison and Probation Service's development work and to track the scope and nature of the reintegration assistance. We are also meant to report on any impediments to well-functioning and knowledge-based reintegration assistance work. Special attention is to be paid to any differences in working methods in various parts of the country, differences between men and women, and differences for persons from different language backgrounds. The crime victim aspects are to be highlighted, where relevant. Finally, Bra is, as necessary, required to suggest ideas for further development of the reintegration assistance efforts. As a basis for the study, Bra has visited 13 different facilities ' prisons with various security classifications, detention centres, day release offices, halfway houses, and treatment homes. We have interviewed a total of 100 individuals, both staff and clients, at these facilities. Interviews have also been conducted with a number of individuals at the headquarters of the Prison and Probation Service, as well as with other strategically important individuals. In addition, Bra has had continual contact with representatives from the Prison and Probation Service's working group for the development work. Our quantitative source material includes both the Prison and Probation Service's existing statistics and a special order in respect of clients who were released from prison. Bra has also been given access to unpublished data from a study which was conducted on the Prison and Probation Service's research unit. In addition to the above, a survey of the literature in the form of previous studies and evaluations has been conducted. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra), 2018. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report 2017:15: Accessed April 4, 2018 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.10aae67f160e3eba62919667/1517917740405/2017_15_Reintegration_assistance_summary.pdf Year: 2028 Country: Sweden Keywords: Parolees Shelf Number: 149687 |
Author: Granstrom, Gorel Title: Lifecycle of a Hate Crime. Country Report for Sweden Summary: Measures against crimes motivated by bias have been defined as a priority issue in Sweden since the mid-1990s. The Swedish Government has stated that these crimes are seen as a violation of human rights and, as such, important to combat. "Effective measures against racism and hate crime contribute towards the objective of ensuring full respect for Sweden's international human rights obligations. Combating racism and similar forms of hostility prevents the risk of individual's rights being infringed." For legal actors in the Swedish judicial system, prioritising hate crime concerns increasing the number of prosecutions and convictions and also furthering measures aimed at improving the way in which victims of hate crime are treated when they come into contact with the judicial system. This has for example been discussed in the context of supervisory reports regarding both the work of the police and the work of the prosecutors. As an example, it can be mentioned that in October 2017 an annual increase of SEK 10 million (approximately 1 million EUR) was announced in the budget of the Police Authority to be directed to the special democracy and hate crimes units within the three largest cities in Sweden. This extra funding is intended to provide the means for strengthening the capacity of the units to investigate hate crimes, by providing them with more opportunity for education and training, and also for improving coordination of the work among them. The aim of this study is to investigate the application of criminal laws and sentencing provisions regarding bias-motivated crimes in Sweden. Our goal is to identify best practices with regard to the tools used to combat bias-motivated crimes by studying legal regulations and policy documents and comparing these with the experiences of the legal actors (judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers) of how this legal framework is applied in practice. This is a study that contrasts law in books with law in action, in that, by interviewing those working with hate crime legislation, we have attempted to discover what works and where there is room for improvement. In line with this, we also interviewed victims of bias-motivated crimes and offenders who have committed such crimes. The overall aim is to investigate both how these groups have been met by the judicial system and their opinions of these meetings. Details: Umea, Sweden: Umea University, 2017. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 2, 2018 at: https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Life-Cycle-of-a-Hate-Crime-Country-Report-for-Sweden-English.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Bias-Motivated Crimes Shelf Number: 150026 |
Author: Skinnari, Johanna Title: Perceptions of the justice system in socially disadvantaged areas Summary: Bra has been instructed by the government to study confidence in the justice system, and the sense of safety among residents in areas which the police identify as socially disadvantaged. Socially disadvantaged areas are characterized by, among other things, a large percentage of residents with low socioeconomic status, and criminal elements that have significant impact on the local community. According to the police, particularly socially disadvantaged areas are characterised by criminal presence, which has led to a widespread reluctance to participate in the criminal justice process, resulting in difficulties for the police to perform their duty. The study is partially based on processed NTU1 data for the police's 61 socially disadvantaged areas. It is also based on a door-to-door survey2 with residents, association representatives, municipal employees, and police in a number of socially disadvantaged areas. The study illuminates problems in the investigated areas that must be seen as exceptional in relation to most other residential areas. There are open sales of narcotics, vandalism, littering, and traffic offences affecting the residential environment. Some of the areas are periodically subject to very serious violent criminality. Crime and public disorder have a negative impact on the residents' sense of safety and image of the police. There are also signs of structures, mainly criminal, that run parallel with, for example, the justice system. At the same time, when considering crime rates and confidence in the justice system, the results of the NTU processing do not indicate any general deterioration in the 61 areas over time. However, many residents - including those who feel relatively safe - talk about the impact on their everyday life in the interviews. Many also communicate a general feeling that their area is forgotten or treated differently than other areas, or society as a whole. Details: Stockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra), 2018. 180p. Source: Internet Resource: Report 2018:12: Accessed July 9, 2018 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.c4ecee2162e20d258c31499/1528197570060/2018_12_Perceptions_of_the_justice_system_in_socially_disadvantaged_areas.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Sweden Keywords: Disadvantaged Areas Shelf Number: 150782 |
Author: Soderstrom, Maria Title: Utvecklingen i socialt utsatta omrden i urban miljo 2006-2017 En rapport om utsatthet, otrygghet och frtroende utifrn Nationella trygghetsunderskningen Summary: This report describes the extent and development over time - in socially vulnerable areas compared with other urban areas - of factors such as vulnerability to crime, insecurity and concern, and confidence in the judiciary. Women's insecurity and vulnerability are separately reported. The purpose of the report is to describe , for the second consecutive year, the National Security Survey (NTU) at an overall level how vulnerability to crime, insecurity and concern and trust in the judiciary spread and developed over time in socially vulnerable areas compared with other urban areas . The mission includes separately reporting the situation and development for women and men. Socially vulnerable areas are a term used more and more, but what is meant by the term is often unclear and differs between different areas of application. In order to select socially vulnerable areas, information about the area's income level, utilization of support and age structure were used as criteria. The report is primarily aimed at the government and the judiciary authorities. Some of the conclusions in the report The proportion of crimes against individuals (including violent crime) is greater among women and men in socially vulnerable areas compared with women and men in other urban areas. In general, the proportion of insecure is greater among women and men living in socially vulnerable areas compared to women and men in other urban areas. Women in socially vulnerable areas experience insecurity and concern to the greatest extent. The proportion of high trust in the judiciary and its authorities is generally less in socially vulnerable areas than in other urban areas. However, the differences are small, and in terms of trust in the police, the prosecution and the view of the judicial system dealing with vulnerable, the proportions are, in principle, at the same level. The results should be interpreted with caution. Those who have particularly low confidence in the judiciary are likely to be less likely to be investigated by NTU, and when the response rate in the socially disadvantaged areas is lower, there is a risk that confidence levels will be overestimated. Details: Stockholm: Brottsfrebyggande radet 2018, 2018. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: 2018:9: Accessed July 10, 2018 at: https://bra.se/download/18.7f57ba351641b9cdc3d3859/1530102465497/2018_9_Utvecklingen_i_socialt_utsatta_omraden_i_urban_miljo_2006%E2%80%932017.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Sweden Keywords: Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Shelf Number: 150803 |
Author: Arnberg, Klara Title: Motsattningarnas marknad: Den pornografiska pressens kommersiella genombrott och regleringen av pornografi i Sverige 1950-1980 Summary: This thesis analyses the development towards a mass market pornographic press. Sweden (in addition to Denmark) is often described as a forerunner in this development when the so-called "porn wave" hit most of the Western world in the late 1960s. The "porn wave" was the starting point of the contemporary pornographic press, which put sexually explicit pictures on the international market. Denmark was the first country in the world to decriminalize pornographic pictures in 1969 and Sweden followed in 1971. While previous research in Sweden often blames decriminalisation for the growth of the pornographic market, this thesis shows that the "porn wave" preceded the alteration of the Freedom of the press act and thus calls for a more multifaceted analysis of the development. Very few studies have been made about the development from an underground exclusive market of explicit pornography to a legal mass market. This thesis, however, makes a survey of all the Swedish publishers of pornographic magazines, their length on the market, and the market conditions. By analysing the regulation of pornography prior to 1971 and the legal cases leading to prosecutions of the publishers, the strategies used to challenge the regulation are traced. Special attention is also paid to how the monopoly on distribution held by Pressbyran, a company owned by the Swedish press, affected the pornographic press. By cooperating and starting their own distribution channels, the pornography publishers managed to challenge Pressbyran's regulations. Great emphasis is laid on the discursive construction of pornography in mass media and in the parliamentary debates. This thesis argues that the antagonisms between the pornographic press and its critics are central in understanding how pornography was perceived and that these debates have decisively impacted the market conditions. Sensation-seeking articles in the evening papers, and the politicians' liberal attitudes towards the pornographic press, made the market seem more open and lucrative. The resistance towards the establishment of a mass market and explicit pornographic press was strong during the whole period - but these critics used quite varying arguments. By analysing these arguments, this thesis shows how the pornographic press touched on sensitive cultural norms regarding marriage, young people's sexuality, homosexuality, gender and love. The second half of the 1960s was a turning point in the development of the pornographic press, the discursive construction of pornography and in the political strategies used to combat pornography. In just a few years, the pornographic press grew substantially and started to publish explicit pictures of intercourse. In that same period, the construction of pornography went from a conservatively Christian understanding to a sexually liberal and later to a feminist understanding of its problems. The government introduced a "porn raid" against the magazines, prosecuted many of them, and then paradoxically decriminalized pornography in 1971. Theoretically, the conclusion is made that pornography has to be seen in its historical context and in relation to its special market conditions. Since pornography continually has been a contested commodity, its controversial status has resulted in special regulations, marketing difficulties and lack of income from advertisements. Details: Lund: Sekel bokforlag , 2010. 340p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed July 16, 2018 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:351239/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Sweden Keywords: Mass Media Shelf Number: 150877 |
Author: Svedin, Glenn Title: "En ohyra pa samhroppen" Kriminalitet, kontrallskoll och modernisering i Sverige och Sundsvallsdistriktet under 1800-och det tidiga 1900-talet Summary: This thesis presents an analysis of crime trends and social control during the dramatic transformation of Sweden's social landscape in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, set against the background of the modernization process in the country as a whole and the city of Sundsvall and environs in particular. What assumptions about crime were evident in public debate? How did crime levels vary from region to region, and what were the changes over time? What strategies did government and local authorities try for combating crime? Did the joint efforts by government, local communities, and the voluntary sector actually solve the problems that social change was believed to have caused?When it comes to theory, the interpretative framework is based on Anthony Giddens's argument about modernity and modernization, making particular use of a few central points about what the changes meant for the structuration of society. Giddens's ideas about changes in social control are refined with Michel Foucault's and David Garland's work on the increasingly disciplinary trend seen in the exercise of the law and public control. The analysis of modernity's ramifications for the transformation of both social structures and crime alike has also benefitted from Robert Putnam's and Travis Hirschi's insights into the importance of social capital and social bonds for a well-functioning, low-crime society.The process by which Sweden was transformed from an overwhelmingly agrarian country to an urban, industrial society left its mark on crime patterns. To the contemporary mind, industrialization, migration, and urbanization were the underlying causes of the high levels of serious crime in the society. The start of the nineteenth century had seen a rise in criminality, with both petty crime and lethal violence becoming more common. At the same time, there was a heated debate about the socio-economic problems that were such a strain on the structure of society. The analysis finds that there were large differences in prosecutions in the country and between cities. The Sundsvall area was among those that saw a dramatic change in crime in the course of becoming a major industrial region. At the same time, the thesis shows that there were plenty of cities in Sweden, however rapidly they grew, that had low crime rates. However, the widespread fear of industrialization, migration, and urbanization was often unfounded. For example, both lethal violence and public order offences reached their lowest recorded levels in the interwar period. By then, new cures were sought for the social and moral ills of society. The state's sphere of influence had expanded. New social reforms, including a modified crime policy, were launched. The state became even more assertive, and the same was true of civil society. Society would attend to the moral education of a number of different groups. Moral virtues were to be instilled in the workshy, alcoholic, or criminal, in order to produce disciplined and cultured citizens. The attention of social activists, the scientific community, civil servants, and local and national politicians shifted from crime per se to the far broader issue of asociality. Modernization gave the voluntary sector a significant role in the social organization of the day, shaping new forums for interpersonal relationships and strengthening social ties. The thesis makes the case that two distinct periods, each with its specific social structures and crime patterns, can be observed; one belonging to the nineteenth century, the other to the first four decades of the twentieth century.Finally, the similarities between the history of crime in Sweden and, for example, the US or the UK are highlighted. As in Britain and North America, the early industrialization period saw weakened social bonds, and a time of greater violence and disorder ensued. After a while however, the situation stabilized, and crime rates began to drop again. When industrial societies ceased to be 'frontier communities' at the forefront of modernization, and instead became more mature communities, crime levels fell as people's commitment to their communities was renewed. Details: Hoor: Brutus Ostlings Bokforlag Symposion, 2015. 324p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed July 17, 2018 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:812217/FULLTEXT02.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Rates Shelf Number: 150894 |
Author: Nilsson, Anna Title: Income inequality and crime: The case of Sweden Summary: The degree of income inequality in Sweden has varied substantially since the 1970s. This study analyzes whether this variation has affected the crime rate using a panel of Swedish county-level data for the period 19732000. We consider various measures of income inequality to evaluate which part of the distribution that matters most in determining crime rates. Our results indicate that there is a statistically significant positive effect of the proportion of the population with an income below 10 percent of median income on the incidence of property crime. Moreover, the unemployment rate has a positive effect on the incidence of the number of overall crime, auto thefts and robberies. The results look different for the violent crime category assault. Details: Uppsala: The Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation (IFAU), 2004. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper 2004:6: Accessed August 10, 2018 at: https://www.ifau.se/globalassets/pdf/se/2004/wp04-06.pdf Year: 2004 Country: Sweden Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 151110 |
Author: Nilsson, Anna Title: Indirect effects of unemployment and low earnings: crime and children's school performance Summary: This thesis consists of three self-contained essays that consider indirect effects of unemployment and low earnings on crime and children's school performance. The first essay, Crime, unemployment and labor market programs in turbulent times (joint with Jonas Agell), investigates the effect of unemployment and participation in labor market programs, in general and among youth, on Swedish crime rates using a new panel data set for Swedish municipalities for the period 1996-2000. The exceptional variation in Swedish unemployment in the 1990s provides a remarkable (quasi-) experiment. Between 1996 and 2000 the overall unemployment rate (including those enrolled in labor market programs) decreased from 11.9 to 6.8 percent, and for those most likely to commit crimes, people under the age of 25, unemployment decreased from 21.2 to 8.7 percent. But the decrease in unemployment was far from uniform across the country, and our identification strategy is to use the exceptional variation in the improvement in labor market conditions across municipalities to isolate the relationship between unemployment and crime. We also consider whether placement in labor market programs reduce crime. Such an effect could arise for many reasons. Program participation may imply: (i) that there is less time for other activities, including crime; (ii) social interactions that prevent the participant from adopting the wrong kind of social norms; (iii) a greater ability to earn legal income in the labor market. Unlike most previous studies we identify a statistically and economically significant effect of general unemployment on the incidence of burglary, auto-theft and drug possession. Contrary to much popular wisdom, however, we could not establish a clear association between youth unemployment and the incidence of youthful crimes and there is no evidence that labor market programs - general ones and those targeted to the young - help to reduce crime. The second essay, Earnings and crime: The case of Sweden, analyzes whether low earnings has an effect on Swedish crime rates, considering the overall crime rate and specific property crime categories, using a panel of county-level data for the period 19752000. Various measures of the income distribution are considered, based on annual labor earnings as well as annual disposable income. The results indicate that the effect of low earnings on crime in Sweden is at best weak. We estimate a significant effect of low earnings on the number of auto thefts, but the effect is small. Low earnings seem to have no effect on the overall crime rate, the number of burglaries or the robbery rate. The results give, however, further support for an unambiguous link between unemployment and the overall crime rate as well as specific property crime categories. These findings are in contrast with results from, for example, the United States where wages are found to have a stronger impact on crime than unemployment. The differing results could, at least partly, be explained by the fact that during the period investigated, Swedish unemployment has been of a more permanent nature than U.S. unemployment, and that transitory earnings fluctuations appear to dominate the Swedish earnings distribution for young men, a part of the population committing a disproportionate share of many crimes. Finally, the third essay, Parental unemployment and children's school performance, considers another possible indirect effect of unemployment, namely the school performance of the children of the unemployed. I use Swedish data on individual GPA from the completion of primary school at age 16 and final grades from upper secondary school for a majority of all children completing primary school in 1990 directly moving on to three years of upper secondary school, which they complete in 1993. The empirical method builds on the idea that primary school GPA can be used to control for family and individual heterogeneity. The huge variation in Swedish unemployment during the beginning of the 1990s, which can be traced to macroeconomic events, provides an ideal setting for testing the hypothesis that parental unemployment affects childrens school performance. The main results can be summarized as follows. If a mother is subjected to an unemployment spell during the period when one of her children attends upper secondary school, the school performance of the child marginally improves. This implies that, for women, the positive effect of having extra time on your hands exceeds the negative effects of the disadvantages caused by unemployment. This positive effect of having an unemployed mother seems to increase with the length of the unemployment spell. On the opposite, having a short-term unemployed father has a negative effect on a childs school performance while the effect is insignificant for long-term paternal unemployment. The fact that a long-term unemployment spell of the father has a less clear effect could be interpreted as the shock of unemployment wearing out. One explanation for the differing results across genders could be that women in general cope better with being unemployed and hence are able to use their new extra time doing something productive, such as spending quality time with their children. Details: Stockholm: Stockholm University, Department of Economics, 2005. 106p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: accessed August 13, 2018 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A194695&dswid=mainwindow Year: 2005 Country: Sweden Keywords: Economic Conditions and Crime Shelf Number: 151117 |
Author: Edmark, Karin Title: The Effects of Unemployment on Property Crime: Evidence from a Period of Unusually Large Swings in the Business Cycle Summary: This paper uses a panel of Swedish counties over the years 1988-99 to study the effects of unemployment on property crime rates. The period under study is characterized by great turbulence in the labor market - the variation in the unemployment rates is unprecedented in the second half of the century. The data hence provides a unique opportunity to investigate unemployment effects. According to the theory of economics of crime, increased unemployment rates lead to higher property crime rates. A fixed effects model is estimated to investigate this hypothesis. The model includes time- and county-specific effects and a number of economic and socio-demographic variables in order to control for unobservables and covariates. In addition the model is estimated with linear and quadratic time trends to control for county-specific unobserved trends. The result gives strong evidence that unemployment has a positive and significant effect on burglary, car theft and bike theft. Details: Uppsala University, Department of Economics, 2003. 29p.28p. Source: Initernet Resource: Accessed August 13, 2018 at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bc63/35dd419043ef2b965f7b10732a4b55340bf5.pdf Year: 2003 Country: Sweden Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 151122 |
Author: Ornstein, Petra Title: The price of violence: Consequences of violent crime in Sweden Summary: The connection between violence victimization and long term ill-health is well documented, but evidence is lacking on the causal effects of victimization beyond the time of the immediate injury. The aim of this study is to identify and estimate the longer term consequences of interpersonal violence on victims. Using rich administrative population data for Sweden, I compare individuals who visited a hospital in the years 1998 to 2002 due to assault with individuals who did not experience assault, but who were statistically indistinguishable from the cases of interest in the four years prior to the incident. The results suggest that violent crime has large and persistent effects on mortality, suicide, earnings, work status, disposable income, as well as on the number of days on sick leave. Specifically, an assault leading to a hospital visit is estimated to convey losses amounting to 1.4 million SEK per victimized woman and 1.5 million SEK per victimized man, whereof more than 80 percent result from excess mortality. Estimates on socio-economic outcomes show robustness against selection on unobserved characteristics. Estimates on mortality and suicides are very robust. Details: Uppsala: Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU), 2017. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper 2017:22: Accessed August 16, 2018 at: https://www.ifau.se/globalassets/pdf/se/2017/wp2017-22-the-price-of-violence-consequences-of-violent-crime-in-sweden.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Domestic Violence Shelf Number: 151153 |
Author: Pyka, Mikael Title: Poaching for large predators -- conflict in a lawless land? Summary: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra) has, in collaboration with Stockholm University, conducted a wide-ranging investigation into the phenomenon of predator poaching, and has discovered one of the most complex political issues in Sweden today. From the analysis of all cases reported to the police of suspected illegal killing of wolves, lynxes, bears, wolverines and golden eagles during the period 1995-2005, a total of 344 cases, and the path from report to possible investigation and verdict, it emerges that only a very small percentage of the perpetrators of this type of poaching are convicted. The perpetrators who are convicted are given the lowest penalties possible. Among those who perceive the renewed spread of large predators as a problem - primarily hunters and livestock owners - there is strong support for predator poaching which makes supervision and investigation extremely hard for both administrative and investigative authorities. According to interviews, participating observations and a questionnaire that Bra has conducted, the support emanates from considerable dissatisfaction with the current national predator policy. The dissatisfaction can also be witnessed in the way that predators are portrayed, both in local daily newspapers and in hunting magazines, where neutralising and legitimising arguments are available for those who are motivated to commit these crimes. The crime preventive measures that have to be implemented to change this situation are therefore primarily targeted at achieving greater acceptance for the existing predator policy. Details: Sstockholm: Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2008. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: English summary of Bra report No 2007:22: Accessed September 26, 2018 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.cba82f7130f475a2f1800023507/1371914733564/2007_22_poaching_large_predators.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Sweden Keywords: Animal Poaching Shelf Number: 113453 |
Author: Kotajoki, Jenniina Title: Preventing Violent Extremism and Crime in the Nordic Countries: Similarities, Synergies and Ambiguities Summary: The issue of violent extremism has risen high on the global political agenda, and there is an increased need to understand its prevention. The long tradition of crime prevention (CP) research and policies is one area that could contribute to the understanding of prevention of violent extremism (PVE). This paper describes how and to what extent violent extremism and different forms of crime converge in Nordic PVE and CP strategies and action plans. Despite some significant differences regarding PVE and CP in the Nordic countries, analysis of the Nordic policy documents and some of the existing research demonstrates that the relationship between violent extremism and different forms of crime may actually be inextricable and more profoundly impacting than traditionally described. Considering the dynamic relation between violent extremism and criminality in theory and in practice, as well as understanding different approaches to it, could help in tackling new forms of threats or vulnerabilities and in designing more coherent policies and prevention measures. Details: Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2018. 20p, Source: Internet Resource: SIPRI Insights on Peace and Security No. 2018/3: Accessed October 4, 2018 at: https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/2018_3_preventing_extremism_kotajoki.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Prevention Shelf Number: 152835 |
Author: Smit, Timo Title: Multilateral peace operations and the challenges of terrorism and violent extremism Summary: The New Geopolitics of Peace Operations III: Non‑Traditional Security Challenges initiative was launched with support from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, and in continued partnership with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES). This phase of the initiative seeks to enhance understanding about peace operations and non-traditional security challenges such as terrorism and violent extremism, irregular migration, piracy, organized crime and environmental degradation. It aims to identify the various perceptions, positions and interests of the relevant stakeholders, as well as to stimulate open dialogue, cooperation and mutual understanding by engaging key stakeholders and mapping the policy space for the potential role of peace operations with respect to non-traditional security challenges. SIPRI and FES organize five dialogue meetings, each on a different non-traditional security challenge and each preceded by a background paper that sets the baseline for the meeting. The background paper gives an overview of the main developments and discussions regarding peace operations and the specific challenge to be discussed. Based on the outcomes, the initiative concludes with a final report aimed at moving the discussion forward. Details: Solna, Sweden: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2017. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 4, 2018 at: https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2017-11/sipribp1711.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Extremist Violence Shelf Number: 152836 |
Author: Schnabel, Eva Marieke Title: Essays on the Economics of Crime (Sweden) Summary: This thesis considers public policy effects on crime in Sweden using extensive administrative register data on all convictions in Sweden between 1973-2010. First, it explores the impacts of the Swedish compulsory schooling reform that took place between 1949-1962 on individual crime of the generation directly targeted by the education reform. Then it considers the intergenerational effect of this education policy on crime. Policies are often evaluated on either short term outcomes or just in terms of their effect on individuals directly targeted. If such policies shift outcomes across generations their benefits may be much larger than originally thought. This study provides novel evidence on the intergenerational impact of policy by showing that educational reform in Sweden reduced crime rates of the targeted generation and their sons by comparable amounts. The second policy evaluated in this thesis is a liberalization of the opening hours of the Swedish alcohol monopoly outlet stores that took place between 2000- 2001. This study distinguishes itself from existing studies by mapping out an age-specific policy impact on crime for all ages and for a broad set of types of crimes. Whether and how alcohol policies shift criminal outcomes differently for different ages and type of crimes is not well established. The liberalized opening hours of outlet stores had very heterogeneous effects on crime by age and type of crimes. It reduced overall crime rates for male teenagers by 15-20 percent, mainly driven by reductions in drugs and property offences. Men in their mid-thirties also experience a substantial reduction of overall crime rates by 9 percent that comes from reductions in other crimes category and traffic crimes. While a strong increase of 10 percent in the crime rate for men in their early to mid-twenties can be mainly attributed towards a large increase in drug offences. Details: London: University College London, 2014. 111p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed January 28, 2019 at: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1431114/1/PhD_thesis_EM%20Schnabel.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Sweden Keywords: Age-Crime Curve Shelf Number: 154458 |
Author: Ortman, Elin Title: The Swedish Model of Detention: A Case Study of Astorp Detention Centre Summary: Detention centres are a rather new phenomena in the Swedish institutional setup. However, due to the migration inflow of 2015 it is now rapidly expanding all over Sweden. So far, it has been only scarcely monitored and researched and mostly with a focus on the perspective of the detainee's health or the employees experiences at the detention centres. Little is known about the role of the NGOs and how they collaborate with the Migration Agency to secure the rights for those who are detained. This study is a qualitative case study on one of the five detention centres in Sweden, namely AAstorp detention centre which is located in Skaane 20km from Helsingborg. Four interviews have been made with the Migration Agency and with the NGOs that are continuously visiting the detainees in AAstorp. By using data triangulation, the validity of the study has increased and principles from the rights-based approach have been used to highlight important aspects of the collaboration. One significant finding in this research is that the Migration Agency is willingly increasing the transparency by inviting an unlimited number of NGOs to monitor and secure the rights for the detainees, which in turn has led to Sweden's detention centres being referred to as a successful model for the rest of the world. This study has also showed a successful and mutual collaboration between the Migration Agency and the NGOs and even if their roles at the detention centres are different, all participants are working towards a common goal, to improve the conditions for those who are detained. Details: Vaxj, Sweden: Linnaeus University, 2019. 58p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed March 28, 2019 at: http://lnu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1287197/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Sweden Keywords: Illegal Immigrants Shelf Number: 155204 |
Author: Joorman, Martin Title: Legitimized Refugees: A Critical Investigation of Legitimacy Claims within the Precedents of Swedish Asylum Law Summary: This study focuses on asylum cases decided at Sweden's migration courts. More precisely, it analyses how the highest legal instance, the Migration Court of Appeal (in Swedish Migrationsoverdomstolen, hereafter MCA), legitimizes decisions that concern asylum seekers. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), the study makes power relations visible. Investigating central discursive claims that are expressed in the precedents of Swedish asylum law, certain power relations are identified as particularly unbalanced. Based on the identification of what I subsequently call the institutionalized power imbalance of the asylum system, the study's findings compel me to challenge this imbalance. After conducting ten interviews with judges at Sweden's four (second-instance) Migration Courts as well as at the (third instance) MCA, I reviewed 200 precedents (published 2006-2016) that concern people who applied for a residence permit in Sweden. Of these 200, 75 precedents of relevance for Swedish asylum law appear in the study. Drawing on Robert Stake's understanding of a collective case study, the interviews are used to sample six precedents for in-depth analysis. Through a CDA of these last-instance decisions it is demonstrated how precedents of Swedish asylum law discursively represent 1) families with children, 2) class, race, ethnicity and religion, gender and sexuality, and 3) the policy of 'regulated immigration' (reglerad invandring). Building on Norman Fairclough's conceptualization of discursive legitimation strategies, and with the help of Robert Alexy's and Jrgen Habermas' approaches to legal discourse, it is argued that precedents of Swedish asylum law are not only legitimized based on I) the authority of law, but also by reference to II) the rationalization of empirical reasoning, III) the utility of institutionalized actions that can use law as means for political ends, IV) those moral evaluations that permeate legal discourse, and V) the storytelling that appears when legal texts are read as narratives. This argumentation highlights uncertainty, which affects the social reality of asylum processes and which appears to be represented when precedents of Swedish asylum law are legitimized by reference to rationalization, moral evaluation, and/or as narratives. Providing the respective decisions with some meaning, rather than merely making sure that they are legally correct, the analysed precedents are, thus, legitimized not only by reference to the authority of law. Referring to Şeyla Benhabib and her usage of Robert Cover's distinction between 'law as power' and 'law as meaning', a CDA of precedents of Swedish asylum law can, in this sense, illustrate how judges pay notice to the complexity of refugee migration in the world of today. Details: Lund: Lund University, 2019. 279p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 2, 2019 at: https://portal.research.lu.se/portal/files/62136551/Legitimized_Refugees_PhD_Thesis_Martin_Joormann.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Sweden Keywords: Asylum Seekers Shelf Number: 155600 |
Author: Nord, Nina Axnas och Annica Title: Evaluation of the Cooperation to Prevent Social Unrest in the Jarva Area Summary: The main purpose of this report is to describe the initiation and development of forms of cooperation at all levels of the cooperation work conducted in the Jarva area within the Vasterort Police District. The aim is also to identify the factors that, according to the actors involved, have led to a better cooperation process, as well as the shortcomings which have contributed to an unsuccessful cooperation. What are the success factors for the cooperation work? Cooperation in Vasterort has been built up gradually, both in project form and in the daily line operations. Some projects have been successful, while others have not. Four main categories in the cooperation work are highlighted in the results: fundamental conditions, value-adding factors, complex factors and one area for improvement. Fundamental conditions include factors that are generally considered necessary for the cooperation to work at all. These include a common situational awareness, regular cooperation meetings at several levels, mature organisation, time, continuity, personal relationships, commitment and support from management. Value-adding factors are factors that have developed the cooperation for the better. These include real enthusiasts and driving forces, recruitment in the local community, cultural understanding and support, communication and encouragement. We have also identified a number of complex factors which may be value-adding, but which also come with certain risks. Found among these are youth involvement, youth centres and overworked cooperation. Finally, we have identified an area for improvement: Parent participation: The field study in the Jarva area and the contextual analysis show that the working methods used in the various cities in Sweden are similar in many respects. Factors highlighted as successful are repeated, both within Sweden and in Copenhagen and London. There is also a consistency in what is lacking. We believe the main reason for this to be, in part, the absence of a national collaborative forum for the organisations, and partly that the effects of the crime prevention cooperation efforts are not so easily measured. The natural continuation of this report is to develop a cooperation measurement that can show whether the collaborative actors are working on the right things and that the work should thereby be more actively prioritised; alternatively, if it is a waste of public resources so that time and energy should be devoted to other things. Details: Stockholm, Sweden: Polismyndigheten, 2012. 106p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 23, 2019 at: http://polisen.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/EU-report-English-version.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Sweden Keywords: At-Risk Youth Shelf Number: 156061 |
Author: Frenzel, Anna Gavell Title: School Survey on Crime 2017: On Crime Victimisation and Participation in Crime Summary: The overall purpose of the School Survey on Crime is to collect and analyse self-reported data from yearnine students regarding their exposure to crime and their participation in crime and other deviant behaviour. The results for the year are compared to the results from School Survey on Crime 2015. The types of offences which are investigated differ somewhat in respect of exposure to crime and own participation in crime. In respect of the students' exposure to crime, questions were asked regarding exposure to various forms of theft offences, assault, threats, robbery, and sexual offences. In addition, exposure to offensive behaviour via the Internet and exposure to bullying were also investigated. In terms of participation in crime, questions were primarily asked regarding participation in theft offences, violent offences, vandalism, and narcotics offences. In addition, participation in certain other types of criminal behaviour were also investigated (such as break-ins, illegal file sharing, use of a false ID, or use of another person's ID). Certain other types of deviant behaviour, such as whether the student has been truant for an entire day and whether the student has consumed alcohol to the point of intoxication, were also investigated. The reference period in respect of both exposure and participation in crime is the most recent twelve months. The survey was conducted among year-nine students at a selection of schools in Sweden. It comprises a printed survey which the students completed anonymously during school hours. A total of 4,268 students participated in this year's survey. Details: Stockholm, Sweden: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2017. 7p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 14, 2019 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.62c6cfa2166eca5d70e177f/1544174436183/2018_School_Survey_on_Crime_2017.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Sweden Keywords: Deviant Behavior Shelf Number: 156983 |
Author: Horgby, Anna Title: The Police's Work with Police-Citizen Partnerships: Field Studies from Four Areas in Sweden Summary: In connection with the reorganisation of the Swedish Police to one Police Authority, the decision was made that police would begin to work with socalled police-citizen partnerships (Sw. medborgarloften). These are a development, and an integrated part, of the cooperation process which has served as the basis for the work of the police and municipalities for a number of years. The police-citizen partnership model entails that the police, to a greater extent than was previously the case, engage and involve the perceptions, experiences, and know-how of citizens, staff, and other societal actors, and allow this to be reflected in police activities and in the work of crime prevention and safety creation. The working approach is to result in a document - the police-citizen partnership - that describes the measures which the police and its cooperating parties promise to take in order to address identified local problems. Bra has followed the police-citizen partnership work in four selected areas and evaluated its performance. The purpose of the evaluation is to furnish the police with a picture of the police-citizen partnership work and provide guidance for future development and improvement of this work. In addition, the aim of the study is to identify whether the work in the studied areas has led to any change of direction in respect of the goals established by the police for the police-citizen partnership: for citizens to experience more participation, to increase confidence in the police, to increase the sense of safety, and to prevent more offences. The target group for the report is the leadership at the Swedish Police Authority, as well as those individuals who work with police-citizen partnerships and local crime prevention work. Details: Stockholm, Sweden: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2018. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 14, 2019 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.62c6cfa2166eca5d70e2e92/1548749883262/2018_The_polices_work_with_police-citizen_partnerships.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Sweden Keywords: Police Collaboration Shelf Number: 156984 |
Author: Jonsson, Elin Title: Shootings in Criminal Milieux: An Interview Study Summary: Lethal gun violence in criminal milieux has increased over time (Bra 2015a; Swedish Police Authority 2018a). Therefore, Bra has conducted a study of shootings in criminal milieux. The study is based primarily on interviews with individuals who have been active in the milieux where gun violence occurs. It is based on three overall lines of enquiry. How are the structures of, and relationships in, criminal milieux described by the individuals who have been active in them? How are conflicts and shootings described. Based on this, how can we understand the presence and function of gun violence in criminal milieux. Details: Stockholm, Sweden: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2019. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 14, 2019 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.62c6cfa2166eca5d70e4041/1551859073659/2019_Shootings_in_criminal_milieux.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Sweden Keywords: Gun Violence Shelf Number: 156985 |
Author: Soderstrom, Maria Title: Swedish Crime Survey 2018 Summary: This summary presents the overall results of the Swedish Crime Survey (SCS) for 2018. The results of the report are summarised and broken down into the following areas of enquiry: victimisation, fear of crime, confdence in the criminal justice system, and crime victims' contacts with the criminal justice system. Of the 200,000 people who were included in the sample for the SCS 2018, approximately 74,000 people participated. The method for the SCS was revised in 2017, as the collection procedure was changed from mainly telephone interviews to postal questionnaires or Internet questionnaires, and that the selection was expanded and some of the questions were reformulated. Since a main purpose of the SCS is to be able to make comparisons over time, a method has been developed to enable the results for the period 2007-2016 to be compared with 2017-2018. All the descriptions of the development over time for the results described in the report are thus probably unaffected by the method change. This is important to emphasize, since the purpose of the study is to study the development over time and to compare different groups in the population, rather than estimating exact levels. Read more about this in the 2018 SCS, technical report (Bra 2019). Details: Stockholm, Sweden: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2019. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 14, 2019 at: https://www.bra.se/download/18.62c6cfa2166eca5d70e416b/1552911141983/2019_Swedish_Crime_Survey_2018.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Sweden Keywords: Crime Statistics Shelf Number: 156970 |