| 1. |
- Andersson, Robert, 1968-
(författare)
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Kriminalpolitikens väsen
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Lina, 1981-
(författare)
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Mått på brott : Självdeklaration som metod att mäta brottslighet
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Measuring crime is one of criminology’s most central tasks. Self-report studies constitute one means of doing so. By asking people, primarily youths, about their experience of involvement in criminal acts, self-report studies are intended to provide knowledge on the extent and structure of crime and on crime trends over time, while also providing opportunities to study the causes of crime. The dissertation’s objective is to examine the use of self-reported crime as a research method. It problematises the use of self-report studies as an instrument for measuring both the extent and structure of youth crime, and also trends in youth crime over time. Problematising the method in this way both illustrates the significance of methodology and measurement instruments for the production/construction of criminological data and makes possible a more nuanced and aware approach to the use of such data. The dissertation comprises a discussion of the basic assumptions of the self-report method viewed from the perspective of theory of science, a review of Swedish self-report studies and a detailed study of the Swedish School Survey on Crime, Sweden’s nationally representative self-report study of youth in year nine (aged 15). The dissertation’s most important conclusions are that researchers, when designing a self-report study, should consider both how crime is viewed and what the study is intended to examine. It is also important, when using self-report data, to consider what the data represent. This is of significance in relation to both how questions might best be formulated and to what extent the mechanisms that affect the results will involve problems for the quality of the measures obtained.
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| 3. |
- Beckley, Amber, 1981-
(författare)
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Foreign background and criminal offending among young males in Stockholm
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- 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.
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| 4. |
- Bergqvist, Martin, 1973-
(författare)
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Räkna med den ekonomiska brottsligheten : Om det kvantitativa studiet av ekonomisk brottslighet
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the 1970´s economic crime has been a debated issue in Sweden. Lack of reliable statistical information has been put forth as a serious problem in this debate. The aim of this thesis is to examine the possibilities of improving quantitative knowledge regarding the prevalence and structure of economic crime in Sweden. Two studies were carried out in order to realize that aim. The first study is a literature review that surveys existing studies within the field and that also critically evaluates the methods and data used in these studies. Focus is placed on acts committed in legal financial organisations and regulated by criminal law. The second study is an in-depth study of economic crimes against consumers on the Swedish market. This study is not limited to criminal law but includes both consumer detriment and crime victimization. Four data materials are used to describe consumer victimization in Sweden, but foremost for discussing the methodological conditions for researching these phenomena. The findings show that there has been a striking focus on tax crime in the Swedish research context. Other crimes, such as insider crime and book-keeping crime has also been studied. When it comes to economic crimes against employees and consumers there is a lack of quantitative Swedish studies. The conclusion of the critical evaluation of the methods is that although methodological problems exist they should not be overstated. For example, survey methods have been used successfully. The findings from the second study show that existing materials give the impression of consumer detriment and victimization as increasingly frequent phenomena. The results also show that people with a relatively high degree of resources report victimization to a higher degree. However, methodological problems make these results questionable. Future studies need to be based on theoretical foundations relevant to the conditions surrounding consumption in Western modern societies.
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| 5. |
- Carlsson, Christoffer, 1986-
(författare)
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Continuities and Changes in Criminal Careers
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The best predictor of future criminal behavior is past criminal behavior. At the same time, the vast majority of people who engage in crime are teenagers and stop offending with age. 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.To do this, the dissertation studies a number of facets of the criminal career: the importance of childhood risk factors (Paper I), the notions of turning points (Paper II) and intermittency (Paper III), and the connection between masculinities and criminal careers (Paper IV). In contrast to much life-course criminological research, the dissertation mainly relies on qualitative life history interviews, collected as part of The Stockholm Life Course Project.The findings suggest a need for increased sensitivity to offenders’ lives, and their complexity. Whereas continuity and change can be understood within a frame of age-graded social control, this perspective needs to be extended and developed further, in mainly three ways. First, the concept and phenomenon of human agency needs closer study. Second, lived experiences of various forms of social stratification (e.g. gender, ethnicity, and so on) must be integrated into understandings of continuity and change in crime, seeing as phenomena such as social control may be contingent on these in important ways. Third, this dissertation highlights the need to go beyond the transition to adulthood and explore the later stages of criminal careers.In closing, the dissertation suggests that we move toward a focus on the contingencies of criminal careers and the factors, events, and processes that help shape them. If we understand those contingencies in more detail, possible implications for policy and practice also emerge.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- du Rées, Helena, 1963-
(författare)
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Miljöbrott, myndighet och marknad : En studie om miljöstraffrätt och allmänprevention
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Penal law has long been of central interest to the political debate on environmental regulation. The objective of this dissertation is to examine the role of penal law as a means of controlling environmentally hazardous economic activities. The focus of the work is directed at the general preventive effects of the threat of penal sanctioning. The role of penal law is studied by means of a questionnaire distributed to super¬visory agencies, police and prosecutors in 1999, and by means of interviews conducted in 2002 with representatives from both public and private sector organisations. An additional analysis has been carried out of material collected by means of a questionnaire distri¬buted by the Prosecutor-General to supervisory agencies and public prosecutors’ offices in 1998, and another distributed by the National Police Board to police authorities also in 1998. Supervisory agencies constitute the first link in the judicial chain associated with the prose¬cution of environmental crime. These agencies’ resource levels, combined with the num¬ber of organisations they have to inspect, their working practices and their ambiguous role vis-à-vis these organisations, may produce a situation where the likelihood of uncovering envi¬ronmen¬tal offences is small and where the propensity to report such offences is negatively affected. The officials working at the agencies in the study felt that police and prosecutors constituted the weakest links in relation to the likelihood that environmental offences would be sanctioned. A large proportion of the problems experienced by police and prosecutors may be understood as a result of the unique character of this particular area. These crimes are often technically complex, both as regards the offences themselves, the legislation and also the question of responsibility. This is related to a need for relevant expertise at the investigating agencies. Despite the risk of discovery associated with environmental crime being deemed to be low, and the sanctions awarded often being deemed very lenient, those interviewed felt that envi¬ron¬mental offending could not pay over the longer term. The attitudes expressed by the inter¬viewees can be understood on the basis of a control theoretical perspective. The study con¬cludes that environmental penal law probably has the greatest deterrent effect on those organi¬sations that have most to lose in terms of investments in their good name, in relation to envi¬ro¬n¬mental protection for example. Further, it appears that the more dependant an organisation is on other actors with conven¬tional values, such as collaborative partners, public sector agen¬cies or employees, the less likely it will be to risk its reputation by committing offences. The costs involved are not in the first instance associated with judicial sanctions, but are rather “punishments” associated with the market. Thus criminal justice system regulation may constitute a judicial core that produces additional social consequences.
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| 8. |
- Ekenvall, Börje, 1933-
(författare)
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En oförvitlig polis? : Studier i polisetik
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation focuses on the attitudes towards misconduct expressed by serving police officers and police trainees during the period 1999 – 2005. Almost 3,000 serving police officers and 800 police trainees have participated in questionnaire surveys and interviews focused on how they rank the seriousness of such behaviours and their own level of tolerance in relation to these behaviours as expressed from different perspectives.The results indicate a large level of homogeneity among the groups concerned as regards both these rankings and levels of tolerance over time. The highest level of intolerance is expressed in relation to theft – in line with the results from several previous studies – whereas attitudes towards the use of excessive force are more restrained. Following the police trainees’ two year training programme, the level of intolerance expressed by certain trainees does show a general increase, but the level of expressed intolerance diminishes among almost as many others, and the differences in both groups are generally quite small. The level of intolerance expressed by the trainees in relation to the use of excessive force declines by the completion of their training.A clear pattern emerges among all of the groups examined, whereby the respondents are usually well aware that the behaviour represents a violation and whereby they view the behaviour as serious at the same time as they believe their colleagues view it less seriously. The level of intolerance expressed diminishes when the respondents are asked about their propensity to report the incidents, and it declines still further in their responses as to whether they believe their colleagues would do so. Thus the police officers usually present themselves as being somewhat more intolerant than their colleagues (thus expressing an exaggerated self-image), a characteristic which is not as marked among the police trainees. This suggests that at least among the serving officers, the respondents’ “true” attitudes are those that they ascribe to their colleagues.The police officers express pronounced signs of the presence of a code of silence, particularly in relation to incidents that may be characterised as less serious. This is not the case among the newly enrolled police trainees, but such signs are also notable within this group once they have completed their training. The exaggerated self-image and the code of silence are contextualised in relation to existing theory, but the approach employed is exploratory.The dissertation lists the obstacles identified by the respondents in relation to meeting their obligation to report. In this regard the ethical reasoning of the officers is highly consequentialist, and they argue that the seriousness of the misconduct is perhaps the most important factor, but that amongst other things the nature of their relationship to the colleague in question and whether or not the misconduct occurs while on duty also make a difference. One condition necessary for not misconduct not to be reported, however, is that it does not occur in public.The dissertation includes two smaller excursive studies, the one a jurisprudential examination of the duty of loyalty, the other an interview study with “whistle blowers”, i.e. police officers who fulfil their obligation to report internal misconduct.The questions examined are of relevance both for police training and also for questions relating to public confidence in the police.
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| 9. |
- Eriksson Tinghög, Mimmi, 1973-
(författare)
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Mission Impossible? Universal Alcohol Prevention at Workplaces in Sweden
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the mid 1990s, alcohol policy in Sweden has undergone major changes and the restrictive policy instruments have been weakened. Alternative and compensatory preventive measures have been sought and the workplace is repeatedly referred to as an important and appropriate arena for prevention. Universal methods, such as disseminating information and education programs, are seen as crucial in order for individuals to be able to make informed choices about their alcohol consumption.The overall purpose of this thesis is to analyze the prerequisites for and the possibilities and barriers associated with alcohol education programs at workplaces. The first paper investigates the general interest in alcohol prevention at workplaces where no interventions had been undertaken. The second paper is an effect study which investigates the effects of a short alcohol education program provided to those employed at a company in Stockholm. In the third paper, the effects of a day-long alcohol education program provided to all persons employed by a municipality are studied. The fourth paper is an interview study, in which the aim is to analyze how the participants in alcohol education programs view their participation and the content and legitimacy of the intervention.The findings suggest that interest in prevention at workplaces is low among employers. In addition, there are difficulties linked to implementation and evaluation, and in achieving and registering any substantial effects. The effect studies noted a significant increase in alcohol-related knowledge and that binge drinking decreased among those who drank the most. The employees found the education programs interesting and valuable but mostly for others, i.e. those who drink too much. Taken together, the studies suggest that it is not reasonable to believe that workplace-based prevention will become a common and effective measure or that it will compensate for the weakened alcohol policy in Sweden.
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| 10. |
- Estrada, Felipe, 1968-
(författare)
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Ungdomsbrottslighet som samhällsproblem : Utveckling, uppmärksamhet och reaktion
- 1999
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The principal aim of this doctoral thesis is to describe the evolution of juvenile delinquency as a social problem during the post-war period. Through its four empirical studies the thesis advocates an understanding based on a contextual constructionism, which represents a compromise position between the objectivist and constructivist perspectives that dominate the field of social problems.The first study (Chapter 2) comprises an analysis of the development of juvenile delinquency in Sweden after 1975. The study is based on official crime statistics, victim surveys, insurance statistics and surveys of the alcohol and drug habits of young persons. The analyses do not allow for an exact determination of the actual trends in juvenile crime, but the indicators suggest that at worst the number of juveniles offenders has remained more or less stable since the mid 1970s, whilst at best the number has diminished.Chapter 3 describes the trends in juvenile crime in ten European countries during the post-war period. The data comprise reports, articles, statistics and personal information from researchers in the countries analysed. The study concludes that in all the countries examined, juvenile crime increases sharply during the first decades of the post-war period (1950-75). After this point, however, these trends level off in most countries.By means of a content analysis of editorials, Chapter 4 deals with the attention focused on juvenile delinquency in the Swedish daily press during the post-war period (1950-1994). The study shows both qualitative and quantitative changes in the way the press portray juvenile crime. Most importantly, 1986 saw the problem of juvenile violence suddenly becoming the dominant issue.Chapter 5 deals with the development of, and the societal response to, violence in schools (1980-1997). A content analysis of a journal for school employees indicates that responses to problems of violence in school underwent a transformation at the end of the 1980s. A study of police reports shows that reported cases of violence in schools have increased considerably. The explanation for this rise is to be found in a change in the size of the dark figure. Besides the response-sensitive official crime statistics, there is very little to indicate any substantial change in the number of juveniles being subjected to, or subjecting others to violence.Chapter 6 discusses the main finding produced by the thesis – namely that there has been a change in the way society reacts to juveniles who commit criminal offences that cannot be explained by the crime trends. Three alternative explanations are discussed: the media and moral panics, the ”racialisation” of the crime problem and the structural crisis of legitimacy faced by the welfare state.
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