The present study examines experiences of hate crimes with multiple motives with a focus on policy and theory-related issues. The authors found that every fifth hate crime victim reports having experiences of multiple motives. These victims are more likely to report their victimization to the police in comparison to victims of hate crimes with single motives. The results also show that belonging to several socially vulnerable groups does not correlate with higher levels of repeat victimization. This is in contrast with intersectional theory as it would predict heightened levels of victimization among such individuals. Lastly, the results show that individuals who belong to more than one socially vulnerable group are more likely to experience hate crimes with multiple motives. Implications for policy and intersectional theory are discussed.

The aim of the study is to provide thevictims’perspective to the contemporary conceptualization of hate crime.Much attention has been given to the interpretational frameworks of offenders, and although victims’ definitions of hate crime are sometimes mentioned in passing in interview studies, this has never been a primary subject of study.The present study applies phenomenological analysisto 28semi-structured interviews with victims of hate crime. The results show that the participants primarily apply meaning to their experiences in social groups and use previous experiences to guide their interpretations. While the conceptualization of victims largely concurs withtheory presented by the research community and special interest organizations, they diverge from how hate crime is contextualized in hate crime legislation.

While unsupervised and unstructured socialising with peers is associated with delinquency, less is known about to what extent it fits within adolescents’ daily routine activities; that is, their general, structural time use. Furthermore, research informed by the situational action theory shows that unstructured socialising increases the probability of rule-breaking acts more for individuals with higher crime propensity. Hence, structural time use might explain patterns of unstructured socialising, and crime propensity might explain why some are at an increased risk of committing rule-breaking acts during such situations. The present study aims to connect these three aspects and examine: (i) how adolescents tend to structure their time use, (ii) if their structural time use differentially places them in unstructured socialising, and (iii) whether some adolescents during unstructured socialising run an elevated risk of committing rule-breaking acts due to their morality (as part of their crime propensity) while also taking their structural time use into account. Using a sample of 512 adolescents (age 16) in Sweden, time use and morality are analysed using latent class analysis based on space-time budget data and a self-report questionnaire. Multilevel linear probability models are utilised to examine how rule-breaking acts result from an interaction between an individual’s morality and unstructured socialising, also taking structural time use into account. Results show that the likelihood of unstructured socialising in private but not in public is different across identified latent classes. Adolescents, in general, run an elevated risk of rule-breaking acts during unstructured socialising, irrespective of structural time use. In this study, these acts consist mainly of alcohol consumption. However, the risk is higher for adolescents with lower morality. Adolescents’ time use may account for a general pattern of delinquency, but accounting for rule-breaking acts requires knowledge of the interaction between person and setting.

The current study explores how neighborhood fear of crime ("worry about specific crimes") changes over time in neighborhoods with different levels of disadvantage. With a comparative design, 81 and 123- neighborhoods in two cities in Sweden are followed over a six-year period. Fear of crime trajectories are assessed through growth curve modeling. We consider how differences in neighborhood processes, such as social and physical disorder, might influence fear of crime levels. The results show that fear of crime increased over time in both cities and the increase was related to higher levels of physical disorder in several areas. Furthermore, the change differed depending on the neighborhood type - in highly disadvantaged neighborhoods, the fear was stable at a high level. In contrast, the largest increases in fear could be seen in the areas with the lowest disadvantage in both cities. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Rapporten syftar till att undersöka förutsättningar som lärare och polis upplever sig ha för attarbeta med antisemitism i Malmö, ifall lärarstudenter får den kunskap de behöver under sinutbildning för att hantera antisemitism och hur samverkan mellan olika aktörer ser ut iMalmö. Detta undersöks genom kvalitativa intervjuer samt kvalitativa och kvantitativaenkätfrågor.Resultaten av rapporten talar för att det saknas viss kunskap bland lärare och lärarstudenterför att upptäcka och hantera antisemitism, men även att det finns viss rädsla och otrygghet föratt diskutera vissa aspekter av ämnet. Lärarstudenter får under sin utbildning inte tillräckligtmycket kunskap för att hantera antisemitism i framtida yrken. Polisen upplevs inte vara encentral aktör i skolans arbete mot antisemitism, men kan fungera som stöd till lärare ochskolledning. Det tas även upp att en mer omfattande dokumentation av polisen vid dessa fallskulle kunna leda till större möjligheter att utreda antisemitiska hatbrott. Resultatet visar attdet finns flertalet pågående samarbeten i Malmö, framförallt inom skolmiljö för att motverkaantisemitism. Det saknas dock en gemensam samordning av dessa initiativ. Utifrån det somhar framkommit i resultatet rekommenderas flera förslag, bland annat återkoppling av polisefter nedlagd anmälan av hatbrott, inkludering av antisemitism i lärarutbildning och rollspelför att integrera frågor rörande konflikter.

Bostadsområdet är en central del av människors vardag och omfattande internationell forskning visar att bland annat bostadsområdets utformning och befolkningssammansättning har betydelse för hur de boende mår och vad de gör. Forskning visar att olika typer av problem ofta sammanfaller inom samma områden, och det finns tydliga skillnader mellan olika områden avseende bland annat hälsa, skolresultat och brottslighet. Ett exempel på detta är att i bostadsområden med höga nivåer av våld och annan brottslighet tenderar den psykiska och fysiska hälsan att vara sämre, tilliten till samhällsinstitutioner vara lägre och nivån av otrygghet bland de boende högre. I den här rapporten ligger fokus på otrygghet och utsatthet för brott och varför dessa fenomen varierar mellan olika områden.

The high prevalence of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in countries with high levels of gender equality has been defined as the "Nordic paradox". In this study we compared physical and sexual IPVAW prevalence data in two countries exemplifying the Nordic paradox: Sweden (N = 1483) and Spain (N = 1447). Data was drawn from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Survey on violence against women. To ascertain whether differences between these two countries reflect true differences in IPVAW prevalence, and to rule out the possibility of measurement bias, we conducted a set of analyses to ensure measurement equivalence, a precondition for appropriate and valid cross-cultural comparisons. Results showed that in both countries items were measuring two separate constructs, physical and sexual IPVAW, and that these factors had high internal consistency and adequate validity. Measurement equivalence analyses (i.e., differential item functioning, and multigroup confirmatory factor analysis) supported the comparability of data across countries. Latent means comparisons between the Spanish and the Swedish samples showed that scores on both the physical and sexual IPVAW factors were significantly higher in Sweden than in Spain. The effect sizes of these differences were large: 89.1% of the Swedish sample had higher values in the physical IPVAW factor than the Spanish average, and this percentage was 99.4% for the sexual IPVAW factor as compared to the Spanish average. In terms of probability of superiority, there was an 80.7% and 96.1% probability that a Swedish woman would score higher than a Spanish woman in the physical and the sexual IPVAW factors, respectively. Our results showed that the higher prevalence of physical and sexual IPVAW in Sweden than in Spain reflects actual differences and are not the result of measurement bias, supporting the idea of the Nordic paradox.

The studies included in this thesis aim to illustrate different aspects of mentalhealth and the utilisation of psychiatric care among Swedish children andadolescents, with the overarching aim being to improve the existingknowledge on how the neighbourhood of residence and parental country ofbirth influence adolescents’ mental health and their pathways into andutilisation of psychiatric care.The first study investigates referral pathways to child and adolescentpsychiatric clinics, directing a special focus at how these pathways differ onthe basis of parental country of birth and neighbourhood of residence. Theresults show that parental country of birth plays an important role in howchildren and adolescents are referred to the child and adolescent psychiatricsector. Children and adolescents with Swedish-born parents appear more oftento have been referred by their families, whereas by comparison with childrenand adolescents with Swedish-born parents, those with foreign-born parentshad more often than been referred by someone outside the family, such as thesocial services or their school. Neighbourhood of residence was found to playa significant role in relation to family referrals; children and adolescents livingin neighbourhoods with low levels of socioeconomic deprivation were morelikely to have been referred by their families by comparison with those frommore deprived neighbourhoods.The second study investigates how parental country of birth and individualgender are associated with the utilisation of psychiatric care. The findingsfrom the study indicate that adolescents whose parents were born in middleorlow-income countries present lower levels of psychiatric outpatient careutilisation than those with Swedish-born parents. Initially, no associations7were found between parental country of birth and inpatient care. Followingadjustment for socio-demographic variables, it was found that adolescentswhose parents were born in low-income countries were also less likely toutilise inpatient care. Girls were more likely to have utilised psychiatric care,but controlling for possible interactions revealed that this was true primarilyfor girls with parents born in Sweden or other high-income countries.In the third study, psychiatric care utilisation patterns are analysed in relationto the neighbourhood of residence. In part the aim was to investigate thevalidity of the neighbourhood when it comes to understanding variations inadolescents’ utilisation of psychiatric care, but the study also examineswhether neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation is associated withindividual variations in the utilisation of psychiatric care. The results indicatethat the neighbourhood of residence has little influence on the utilisation ofpsychiatric care, only 1.6 % of the variance was found at the neighbourhoodlevel. No clear association between the neighbourhood level of socioeconomicdeprivation and levels of psychiatric care utilisation was found in the study.The final study investigates how adolescents’ perceptions of the socialcharacteristics of their neighbourhood are related to their self-reported mentalhealth, while controlling for the socioeconomic structure of theneighbourhood. The results show that adolescents’ perceptions of theirneighbourhood are associated with their self-reported mental health,particularly their perceptions of social disorder. However, these associationsdiffer between girls and boys, and between adolescents with Swedish- andforeign-born parents.In conclusion, the results presented in the thesis show that parental country ofbirth is an important factor when it comes to understanding differences inreferral patterns and in the utilisation of psychiatric care. However, the role ofthe neighbourhood of residence appears to be more complex.

The aim of this study is to assess the effect of neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage on violent crime among a group of children and adolescents who attended Psychiatric Child and Youth Clinics in Stockholm, Sweden. Data is drawn from The Stockholm Child-psychiatric database, which consists of approximately 7600 children and adolescents who consulted the Psychiatric Child and Youth Clinics (PBU) in the county of Stockholm. The children were born in 1981-1989, and finished their contacts with the Psychiatric Child and Youth Clinics between 2003 and 2005. Using multilevel techniques, incidences of violent crime in police registers were related to characteristics of the neighbourhood where the children and adolescents lived. About 7 percent of the variance in violent crime incidents is found at the neighbourhood level. Controlling for individual characteristics reduces the between-neighbourhood variance, though a significant neighbourhood effect remains. When neighbourhood-level disadvantage is added to the model, the between-neighbourhood variance in incidence of violent crime is further reduced, but still significant. This implies that neighbourhood characteristics, in addition to individual characteristics, should be considered in the design and development of psychiatric care for children, and for the development of strategies to prevent future criminality.

Background: There is a well-documented gender difference in offending, with evidence that boys, on average, are more involved in crime than girls. Opinions differ, however,on whether the causes of crime apply to girls and boys similarly.Aims: Our aim is to explore crime propensity in boys and girls. Our research questions were (1) are there differences between boys and girls in moral values and self-control;(2) are these attributes similarly correlated with offending among girls and boys; and (3) is any interaction effect between morality and self-control identical for girls and boys. Methods: Data were drawn from the Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development Study, which includes 481 girls and boys aged 16–17. An 8-item self-control scale was derived from Grasmick’s self-control instrument; we created a 16-item morality scale. Analysis of variance was used to test for differences in scale scores.Results: There were significant gender differences in moral values but not self-control.Moral values and self-control were significantly correlated with offending among both girls and boys. In the multiple regression analysis, the three-way interaction term used to test the interaction between gender, self-control and moral values was non-significant, indicating that the magnitude of the self-control–moral value interaction is not affected by gender.Conclusions: Our findings indicate that effects of morality and self-control are general and apply to girls and boys similarly, so more research is needed to explain gender differences in crime prevalence.

Denna rapport är den fjärde ur en serie rapporter som på olika sätt beskrivit Sofielundsområdena med fokus på brottslighet och otrygghet. Syftet med föreliggande rapport är att undersöka utvecklingen av bland annat brottslighet och otrygghet i Sofielundsområdena sedan fastighetsägarorganisationen BID Sofielund initierades. Ambitionen är att rapporten ska bidra med kunskap och lärdomar om BID-inspirerade samarbeten och vilka potentiella effekter ett sådant samarbete kan ha på utvecklingen av bland annat brott och otrygghet i lokalområdet.

Gender equality is widely accepted as an important explanatory factor for the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. However, the relationship is not straightforward, as high country-level gender equality is not always associated with lower IPV prevalence. We apply 'multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy' (MAIHDA) to (i) quantify the extent to which the country of residence determines individual risk of IPV and (ii) investigate the association between country-level gender equality and individual experience of IPV, and to which extent this association explains the observed between-country differences. Using data from the 2012 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights survey on violence against women we applied MAIHDA to analyse experiences of physical and sexual IPV among 42 000 women living in the EU. We fitted three consecutive models, and calculated specific individual contextual effects (measures of association) as well as the general contextual effects (measures of variance) and the discriminatory accuracy (DA). Our findings show that the relationship between experiences of IPV and country-level gender equality is weak and heterogeneous. The general contextual effect is small and the DA is low, indicating that country boundaries are rather irrelevant for understanding the individual risk of IPV. Findings from the present study do not imply that that gender equality is unimportant in relation to IPV, but rather that information on country of residence or country-level gender equality does not discriminate very well with regards to individual experiences of IPV in cross-national comparisons.

Purpose – Organisations working with children have acknowledged that unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) across Europe are exposed to environments and situations that put them at risk for becoming addicted to drugs or becoming involved in crime. The purpose of this paper is to study an examination of existing international research concerning URM and of whether, and if so how, issues relating to drug use and criminality among these children are discussed in the international literature. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review was conducted using PsycINFO, PubMed, Sociological abstracts and ERIC databases, which together cover the social and behavioural science and also medicine. Findings – Findings from the present review show that the issues of drug abuse and criminality among URM are rarely acknowledged in the international research literature. When the occurrence of substance abuse and/or criminality is discussed, it is often in relation to mental health problems and in terms of self-medication, i.e. that alcohol or drugs are used by the URM to cope with painful experiences or mental health problems, and also with the challenges of integrating into a new society, difficulties finding work, unsuitable living conditions and a lack of social support. Originality/value – This review shows that several researchers have emphasised that untreated mental health problems, stressful living conditions and a lack of support and control might put these children at risk for substance abuse and criminality, and this suggests a need for further research in this area.

I föreliggande rapport presenteras resultatet av effektutvärderingen av pilotprojektet Sluta skjut – tillsammans för ett tryggt Malmö. Utvärderingen har genomförts på uppdrag av Brottsförebyggande rådet (Brå) med stöd från Brå och Fonden för inre säkerhet (ISF). Tidigare har enprocessutvärdering publicerats.

Den grova våldsbrottsligheten beskrivs som ett av de största samhällsproblemen i Sverige idag och efterfrågan på effektiva åtgärder som kan minska våldet är stor. Sluta skjut bygger på en amerikansk strategi, Group Violence Intervention, som i flera studier visat på positiva resultat när det gäller att minska det allra grövsta våldet. I processutvärderingen av Sluta skjut studerades om det går att tillämpa en amerikansk modell i en svensk kontext. I effektutvärderingen har vi studerat om insatsen lett till minskat antal skjutningar i Malmö. Svensk forskning om vad som fungerar för att minska det grova våldet är begränsad och det behövs mer kunskap för att brottsförebyggande aktörer ska få de verktyg de behöver för att vända utvecklingen.

En av de mest aktuella och angelägna samhällsutmaningarna är att minska brottsligheten och öka tryggheten. Detta arbete måste vara baserat på kunskap om vilka åtgärder som fungerar: var, när och hur. Kriminologiprogrammet kombinerar teori, metod och den senaste forskningen för att utbilda studenter till självständiga problemlösande brottsanalytiker som kan arbeta brottsförebyggande och trygghetsskapande inom verksamheter som polis, kommun, kriminalvård och socialtjänst och inom den privata och ideella sektorn. Ett uttalat mål är att teoretisk och empirisk kunskap ska kopplas till samhälleliga behov. Samtidigt ser Polisområde Malmö ett behov av att utveckla och kunskapsbasera sitt arbete för att möta de utmaningar som finns i staden. För att uppnå dessa mål har Malmö högskola och Polisområde Malmö inlett ett samarbete. Syftet var att ett sådant samarbete skulle ge studenterna bättre insikt om polisens arbete, låta dem bidra i arbetet med att utarbeta kunskapsunderlag och utvärdera polisverksamheten (t.ex. i arbetet med medborgarlöften eller kameraövervakning). Samverkansöverenskommelsen förväntas bidra till att stärka kunskapsbasen och förmågan till att arbeta evidensbaserat i polisverksamheten, men också att ge institutionens studenter möjlighet att tillämpa sina teoretiska och metodologiska kunskaper. Som en del av denna samverkansöverenskommelse arbetade studenterna på kursen Kriminologi: Tillämpning våren 2017 med de medborgarlöften som Polisområde Malmö tagit fram för sitt lokala brottsförebyggande och trygghetsskapande arbete. Studenterna arbetade under 10 veckor nära tillsammans med Polisområde Malmös kommunpoliser. Studenterna granskade, samlade in ny information och kom med förslag kring hur polisen kunde utveckla och utvärdera sitt arbete med medborgarlöften. Resultatet av studenternas arbete finns samlat i den här publikationen, uppdelat i stadsområde Norr, Väster, Öster, Innerstaden och Söder.

Den grova våldsbrottsligheten beskrivs som ett av de största samhällsproblemen i Sverige idag och efterfrågan på effektiva åtgärder som kan minska våldet är stor. Svensk forskning om vad som fungerar för att minska det grova våldet är begränsad och det behövs mer kunskap för att Polis och andra brottsförebyggande aktörer ska få de verktyg de behöver för att vända utvecklingen. I den här processutvärderingen har vi studerat pilotprojektet Sluta skjut som är ett försök att implementera den amerikanska strategin Group Violence Intervention (GVI) i en svensk kontext. GVI har i flera internationella studier visat på positiva effekter. Resultaten från utvärderingen visar att det går att implementera den amerikanska strategin i en svensk kontext, effekten av insatsen har inte studerats inom ramen för den här utvärderingen. Utifrån det internationella kunskapsläget och erfarenheterna från implementeringen i Malmö är bedömningen att GVI är möjlig att implementera och kan vara värt att pröva i städer med stora problem med grov våldsbrottslighet.

Utvärderingen har genomförts på uppdrag av Brottsförebyggande rådet (Brå) med stöd från Brå och Fonden för inre säkerhet (ISF).

En förutsättning för ett effektivt brottsförebyggande och trygghetsskapande arbete är att det baseras på kunskap om vilka åtgärder som fungerar: var, när, hur och framförallt varför. Medborgarlöften en viktig del av Polisens arbete med att öka tryggheten och förebygga brott. I den här rapporten finns arbeten skrivna av studenter på Kriminologiprogrammet vid Malmö universitet i vilka de granskat, utvärderat och givit förslag kring Polisområde Malmös medborgarlöften. Arbetet har genomförts i nära samarbete med kommunpoliserna i Malmö vilket inneburit ett kontinuerligt kunskapsutbyte mellan studenterna och polisen kring den lokala problembilden. Utöver det har två studentgrupper arbetat på uppdrag av polisens Utvecklingscentrum Syd med att granska implementeringen av medborgarlöften ur ett nationellt perspektiv. Utgångspunkten för samarbetet är en samverkansöverenskommelse mellan Institutionen för kriminologi, Malmö universitet, och Polisområde Malmö. Syftet är att ge studenterna insyn i polisens arbete och att studenterna ska ge polisen stöd i hur deras brottsförebyggande och trygghetsskapande arbete kan bli mer kunskapsbaserat.

The importance of the city and its neighbourhoods has gained an increasing amount of attention in criminological research over the past decades. A number of studies have shown that neighbourhood characteristics are important for our understanding of the distribution of crime and fear of crime. In addition, characteristics of the residential neighbourhood have been identified as important for our understanding of the collective socialization of children and adolescents. Less is known about how these characteristics evolve over time. It has been argued that neighbourhoods develop and change constantly, nonetheless their relative position in the socioeconomic hierarchy of the city is often stable over time. In the present study the development of 104 Malmö neighbourhoods will be investigated over a period of approximately 15 years in order to extend the knowledge on stability and change of urban neighbourhoods. Data are drawn from the Malmö fear of crime study conducted in 1998 and 2012, comprising a total of approximately 8000 respondents living in the city of Malmö (Sweden). Changes in structural characteristics like neighbourhood socioeconomic status as well as in social processes like collective efficacy will be analysed in order to enhance our understanding of stability or change in victimization and fear of crime at the neighbourhood level. The findings will be discussed in relation to interventions aiming at the development of safe neighbourhoods, as well as in relation to future research.

Background: Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a global and preventable public health problem.Public attitudes, such as victim-blaming, are important for our understanding of differences in the occurrence of IPVAW, as they contribute to its justification. In this paper, we focus on victim-blaming attitudes regarding IPVAW within the EU and we apply multilevel analyses to identify contextual determinants of victim-blaming attitudes. We investigate both the general contextual effect of the country and the specific association between country level of gender equality and individual victim-blaming attitudes, as well as to what extend a possible general contextual effect was explained by county level gender equality. Methods: We analyzed data from 26 800 respondents from 27 member states of the European Union who responded to a survey on public perceptions of domestic violence. We applied multilevel logistic regression analysis and measures of variance (intra-class correlation (ICC)) were calculated, as well as the discriminatory accuracy by calculating the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve. Results: Over and above individual characteristics, about 15% of the individual variance in the propensity for having victim-blaming attitudes was found at the country level, and country level of gender equality did not affect the general contextual effect (i.e. ICC) of the country on individual victim-blaming attitudes. Conclusion: The present study shows that there are important between-country differences in victim-blaming attitudes that cannot be explained by differences in individual-level demographics or in gender equality at the country level. More research on attitudes towards IPVAW is needed.

Purpose To investigate how parental country of birth and individual gender affect utilisation of psychiatric care in adolescents. Methods On the basis of data from the Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis in Scania database, the article employs logistic regression to analyse the utilisation of psychiatric care among adolescents aged 13–18 (n = 92203) who were living in the southern Swedish county of Scania in 2005. Results Adolescents whose parents were born in middle- or low-income countries presented lower levels of psychiatric outpatient care utilisation than those with native parents. Initially, no associations were found between the utilisation of psychiatric inpatient care and parental country of birth. Following adjustment for socio-demographic variables, it was found that adolescents with parents born in low-income countries were less likely to utilise psychiatric inpatient care. Girls presented higher levels of psychiatric care utilisation, but controls for possible interactions revealed that this was true primarily for girls with parents born in Sweden or other high-income countries. Conclusions The different utilisation patterns found among adolescents with different backgrounds should be taken into consideration when planning and designing psychiatric care for adolescents, and when allocating resources. Our results may indicate lower levels of mental health problems among adolescents with parents born in middle- or low-income countries implying that protective factors compensate other stressors implicated in mental health problems. On the other hand, our findings may indicate an unmet health-care need as a result of problems accessing care.

Objective: In the present study, we used a multilevel approach to investigate the role of maternal country of birth (MCOB) in predicting adolescent use of psychotropic medication in Sweden. Design: Using the Swedish Medical Birth Register we identified all 428,314 adolescents born between 1987 and 1990 and who were residing in Sweden in the year they turned 18. We applied multilevel logistic regression analysis with adolescents (level 1) nested within MCOBs (level 2). Measures of association (odds ratio) and measures of variance (intra-class correlation (ICC)) were calculated, as well as the discriminatory accuracy by calculating the area under the Receiver Operator Characteristic (AU-ROC) curve. Results: In comparison with adolescents with Swedish-born mothers, adolescents with mothers born in upper-middle, lower-middle and low-income countries were less likely to use psychotropic medication. However, the variance between MCOBs was small (ICC = 2.5 in the final model) relative to the variation within MCOBs. This was confirmed by an AU-ROC value of 0.598. Conclusions: Even though we found associations between MCOB and adolescent use of psychotropic medication, the small ICC and AU-ROC indicate that MCOB appears to be an inaccurate context for discriminating adolescent use of psychotropic medication in Sweden.

Background In the Swedish society, as in many other societies, many children and adolescents with mental health problems do not receive the help they need. As the Swedish society becomes increasingly multicultural, and as ethnic and economic residential segregation become more pronounced, this study utilises ethnicity and neighbourhood context to examine referral pathways to child and adolescent psychiatric (CAP) clinics. Methods The analysis examines four different sources of referrals: family referrals, social/legal agency referrals, school referrals and health/mental health referrals. The referrals of 2054 children aged 11-19 from the Stockholm Child-Psychiatric Database were studied using multilevel logistic regression analyses. Results Results indicate that ethnicity played an important role in how children and adolescents were referred to CAP-clinics. Family referrals were more common among children and adolescents with a Swedish background than among those with an immigrant background. Referrals by social/legal agencies were more common among children and adolescents with African and Asian backgrounds. Children with Asian or South American backgrounds were more likely to have been referred by schools or by the health/mental health care sector. A significant neighbourhood effect was found in relation to family referrals. Children and adolescents from neighbourhoods with low levels of socioeconomic deprivation were more likely to be referred to psychiatric child and youth clinics by their families in comparison to children from other neighbourhoods. Such differences were not found in relation in relation to the other sources of referral. Conclusions This article reports findings that can be an important first step toward increasing knowledge on reasons behind differential referral rates and uptake of psychiatric care in an ethnically diverse Swedish sample. These findings have implications for the design and evaluation of community mental health outreach programs and should be considered when developing measures and strategies intended to reach and help children with mental health problems. This might involve providing information about the availability and accessibility of health care for children and adolescents with mental health problems to families in certain neighbourhoods and with different ethnic backgrounds.

This paper examines gender differences in young people’s crime involve- ment by testing the core propositions of Situational Action Theory (SAT) in the UK and Sweden. Using data from the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+) and the Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development Study (MINDS) we explore cross-national differences in crime propensity and exposure to criminogenic settings and the extent to which these can explain gender differences in crime involve- ment. Findings show gender differences in crime involvement across both countries with lower levels of crime involvement among females. The results show within study gender differences in offending and propensity, but not in relation to exposure. Between study differences (for both girls and boys) were found in offending and exposure, but not in propensity. Propensity and exposure appear to predict offending among girls and boys similarly. These findings are discussed in relation to contextual differences.

Over recent decades, several studies have investigated the relationship between features of the social environment and adolescents’ mental health. Neighbourhood characteristics, based on official statistics or measured by means of surveys among the adult population, such as neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation or social capital have been linked to adolescent mental health. However, adolescents’ individual perceptions of their neighbourhoods may be an equally important factor for understanding variations in adolescent mental health. The objective of this study has been to increase the knowledge on how adolescents’ perceptions of the social characteristics of their neighbourhoods are related to their mental health, and on whether perceptions of the neighbourhood have an independent effect over and above that of the socioeconomic structure of the neighbourhoods in which the adolescents live. Furthermore, we have studied whether this relationship differed between girls and boys, or between adolescents with different ethnic backgrounds. The study was carried out in 2011–2012, and includes 483 adolescents born in 1995 and living in the city of Malmö. Our results show that adolescents’ perceptions of the social characteristics of their neighbourhoods appear to be associated with their mental health, but these associations seem to differ between adolescents depending on individual characteristics (i.e. gender or parental country of birth). Interventions aimed at improving the social characteristics of adolescents’ everyday environments may be an important factor in reducing mental health problems. However, it is important to acknowledge that the influence of perceived neighbourhood characteristics interacts with individual characteristics.

Guided by Situational Action Theory the aim of the present study was to explore the role of the social environment and its interaction with personal characteristics and experiences in crime causation among young people in a Swedish city. The interaction between young people’s crime propensity and exposure to criminogenic settings on crime involvement was tested. Furthermore, the possibility of gender-specific criminogenic settings was explored. Data from the longitudinal research project Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development study (MINDS) were analysed for the adolescent period. In the present study data from the second and third wave of data collection was used. The data concern in-depth data detailing self-control, morality, deterrence sensitivity and decision-making. Individuals’ exposure to different environments was collected using a Space-Time Budget (STB). The STB provide data on the participants exposure to different settings by measuring which settings they take part of and what activities they engage in, from which we gain information on their activity fields. Characteristics of settings were measured through a separate community survey. The result showed that exposure to criminogenic settings was associated with crime involvement for boys and girls respectively. However, the impact of exposure to criminogenic settingsdiffered between the sexes. The findings will be discussed in relation to policy implications and furtherresearch.

Guided by Situational Action Theory the aim was to explore the role of the social environment and its interaction with personal characteristics and experiences in crime causation among young people in a Swedish city. The interaction between young people’s crime propensity and exposure to criminogenic settings on crime involvement was tested. Futhermore ,the possibility of gender-specific criminogenic settings was explored. Data from The Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development study (MINDS) were analysed for the adolescent period. MINDS was modelled after the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+) and consists of 560 randomly selected children born in 1995, living in the city of Malmö, Sweden. The data concern in-depth data detailing self-control through executive functions and risk-taking, morality, deterrence sensitivity and decision-making. Individuals’ exposure to different environments was collected using a Space-Time Budget. Characteristics of settings were measured through a separate community survey. The results showed that exposure to criminogenic settings was associated with crime involvement for boys and girls respectively. However, the impact of exposure to criminogenic settings differed between the sexes. The findings will be discussed in relation to policy implications and further research.

The aim of the study was to examine if there is an association between how children and adolescents are referred to psychiatric child and youth clinics and what type of treatment they receive, the duration of treatment, treatment outcome, and if they occur in police registers. Knowledge on how children’s pathways to care affect different aspects of their treatment is limited, so is the knowledge on the association between source of referral and child and adolescent criminality. If source of referral is associated with differences in treatment, treatmentoutcome and criminality this may have important implications for the design and implementation of psychiatric care for children, and for the development of strategies to prevent future criminality. The data used in the analysis are drawn from The Stockholm Child-psychiatric database which consists of approximately 7600 children who consulted the Psychiatric Child and Youth Clinics (PBU) in the county of Stockholm, were born 1989 or earlier, and finished their contacts with the Psychiatric Child and Youth Clinics in the years 2003 to 2005.

There is a well documented gender gap in crime involvement between girls and boys. It has been argued that that the underlying causes of crime involvement may not be identical across girls and boys. On the other hand, recently developed theories like the Situational Action Theory (SAT) claims that the causes of crime are general and apply to girls and boys similarly. This paper examines gender differences in young people’s crime involvement by testing some of the core propositions of SAT in the UK and Sweden. Using data from the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS ) and the Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development Study (MINDS) we explore cross-national differences in crime propensity and exposure to criminogenic settings and the extent to which these can explain gender differences in crime involvement. Data from two waves of data collection (age 15 and age 16) are used. Findings show gender differences in crime involvement across both countries with lower levels of crime involvement among girls. However, the differences in crime involvement between girls and boys appear to be greater in the UK than in Sweden. These findings are discussed in relation to country specific gender differences in exposure and propensity.

The aim of this study was twofold; first we wanted to examine if there were actual differences in mental health problems between children with immigrant and Swedish background. Second, we wanted to examine the impact of neighborhood disadvantage, peer status, and family circumstances on mental health problems among children with immigrant background, as well as the association between ethnicity, level of neighborhood disadvantage, and contacts with Psychiatric Child and Youth Clinics. Multilevel analyses, using HLM 6.0, were carried out on data relating immigrant children’s mental health and contacts with psychiatric clinics to neighborhood characteristics. Results indicate that immigrant children tend to have more mental health problems than Swedish children, and factors related to the individual’s childhood family situation explain a considerable part of the differences. No significant differences in mental health problems were found between neighborhoods. The data used in the analysis are drawn from (1) the Swedish longitudinal database Project Metropolitan which consists of a cohort of approximately 15000 children born in 1953 and living in the Stockholm metropolitan area in 1963 and (2) The Stockholm Child-Psychiatric database containing approximately 20 000 children (including matched controls). Further research is needed on how social settings beyond the neighborhood can have an effect on children’s mental health, antisocial behavior, and well being.

The present study presents data from the longitudinal research project Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development study (MINDS). The study is modelled after PADS+ and guided by Situational Action Theory (SAT) with the overall aim to explore the role of the social environment and its interaction with personal characteristics and experiences in crime causation among young people in a Swedish city. The specific aim of the present study was to investigate to what extent young girls and boys differ in crime involvement, crime propensity and exposure to crimino- genic settings and also how these features changes over time. Data from the second and third wave of data collection was used. The data concern in-depth data detailing self-control, morality, deterrence sensitivity and decision-making. Individuals’ exposure to different environments was col- lected using a Space-Time Budget (STB). Overall, the results showed that crime propensity as well as exposure to criminogenic settings was associ- ated with crime involvement for boys and girls, respectively. However, the impact of exposure to criminogenic settings differed between the sexes

Fear of crime is not equally distributed among the Swedish population, and levels of fear differ between residential neighbourhoods. A follow-up of the results from the Sweish Crime Survey from 2006 to 2014 shows that the population in general report decreasing levels of fear of crime. At the same time, however, segregation in Sweden is increasing and the observed pattern of a decrease in fear of crime may not apply to all neighbourhoods or benefit the entire population. We employed data from two studies on fear of crime, performed in Malmö, Sweden, in 1998 and followed up in 2012 with a total of more than 8000 respondents. Multilevel analyses of fear of crime reveal that although the general pattern is that fear of crime is decreasing, differences between neighbourhoods are increasing, suggesting a segregation problem.

Mental health problems among adolescents have become a major public health issue, and it is therefore important to increase knowledge on the contextual determinants of adolescent mental health. One such determinant is the socioeconomic structure of the neighbourhood. The present study has two central objectives, (i) to examine if neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation is associated to individual variations in utilisation of psychiatric care in a Swedish context, and (ii) to investigate if neighbourhood boundaries are a valid construct for identifying contexts that influence individual variations in psychiatric care utilization. Data were obtained from the Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis in Scania (LOMAS) database. The study population consists of all boys and girls aged 13–18 years (N=18,417), who were living in the city of Malmö, Sweden, in 2005. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was applied to estimate the probability of psychiatric care utilisation. The results from the study indicate that the neighbourhood of residence had little influence on psychiatric care utilisation. Although we initially found a variation between neighbourhoods, this general contextual effect was very small (i.e. 1.6 %). The initial conclusive association between the neighbourhood level of disadvantage and psychiatric care utilisation (specific contextual effect) disappeared following adjustment for individual and family level variables. Our results suggest the neighbourhoods in Malmö (at least measured in terms of SAMS-areas), do not provide accurate information for discriminating adolescents utilisation of psychiatric care. The SAMS-areas appears to be an inappropriate construct of the social environment that influences adolescent utilisation of psychiatric care. Therefore, public health interventions should be directed to the whole city rather than to specific neighbourhoods. However, since geographical, social or cultural contexts may be important for our understanding of adolescent mental health further research is needed to identify such contexts.

Situational Action Theory (SAT) explains people’s acts of crime as an outcome of the interaction between their crime propensity (dependent on their personal morals and ability to exercise self-control) and their criminogenic exposure (dependent on the criminogenic circumstances of the settings in which they take part). In this paper, utilising UK (PADS+) and Swedish (MINDS) data for the ages 15-16, we will explore cross-nationally to what extent the SAT framework can help explain within and between gender differences in young people’s crime involvement.

This paper examines gender differences in young people’s crime involvement by testing the core propositions of Situational Action Theory (SAT) in the UK and Sweden. Using data from the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+) and the Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development Study (MINDS) we explore cross-national differences in crime propensity and exposure to criminogenic settings and the extent to which these can explain gender differences in crime involvement. Data from two waves of data collection (age 15 and age 16) are used. Findings show gender differences in crime involvement across both countries with lower levels of crime involvement among females. However, the differences in crime involvement between females and males appear to be greater in the UK than in Sweden. These findings are discussed in relation to differences in exposure and propensity.

Background: Externalizing symptoms in children (aggression, oppositionality, prop- erty and status violations), and the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) triad of problems (inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity) display a substantial co- morbidity. The “short temper” problem is common to these syndromes, which are predictive of a range of negative life outcomes including substance abuse and crimi- nality in adulthood. There is a gender gap for the syndromes (boys are more af- fected), for criminality (men are more criminal) and knowledge (we know less about girls’ criminal careers). Aims: The main aim was to compare crime rates and crime profiles among former Child and Adolescent Psychiatric (CAP) patients with cor- responding data for matched controls, focusing externalizing and internalizing psy- chiatric symptoms, sex and adverse social factors. Method: Data for 6055 former CAP-Stockholm outpatients were extracted from available treatment registers. For each CAP patient, two matched controls from the general population were randomly selected from the same area of residence, of the same sex and with the same year of birth (N approx. 12,000). Data on criminality for these individuals were obtained from a Swedish police register which also includes crimes committed prior to age 15. Results: Overall, twice as many former CAP patients were registered for crimes at a mean age of 21.4 compared to the controls. The over-representation was larger for crimes of violence. Females were registered for a much lower number of crimes, par- ticularly crimes of violence (gender gap). The gender gap among the CAP patients was smaller than among controls. Compared with controls, CAP patients character- ized by externalizing problems at referral had an odds ratio (OR) for crimes of 5 for males and 10 for females. Neglect was the only adverse social factor which was asso- ciated with a higher crime rate and affected boys more than girls. Compared to pre- vious Swedish CAP cohorts, the criminality of the current cohort was much higher. Conclusion: In-depth studies of female crime careers characterized by externalising problems are needed. Child psychiatric services must find new and more effective ways of identifying and treating children with such problems, regardless of sex. The findings can guide the choice of strategies which will reduce crime rate.

Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) poses severe threats to women’s health and rights. This study investigates the role of country context and gender equality in shaping individual perceptions of the severity of IPVAW. Multilevel logistic regression analyses of a Eurobarometer survey on attitudes toward IPVAW from 27 EU states showed that male gender, young age, low education, low self-assessed social position and particularly perceiving IPVAW as uncommon were associated with perceiving IPVAW as less severe. The likelihood of perceiving IPVAW as less severe was higher in countries with low gender equality. Between-country variance accounted for 14% of the variability, while country-level gender equality accounted for 22% of the between-country variance. We conclude that efforts toward strengthening perceptions of IPVAW as a severe issue should focus on awareness-raising and on increasing country-level gender equality.

The business improvement district (BID) model has spread rapidly worldwide and has recently caught the eye of Swedish politicians and practitioners as a feasible approach to reduce crime in urban neighbourhoods. Research on the crime-preventive effects of BIDs is, however, limited to a handful of US studies, and there is a lack of research from European contexts. The aim of the present study is to fill gaps in knowledge by examining the crime-preventive effects of a BID-inspired property owner collaboration (BID-Malmö) implemented in a residential neighbourhood in Malmö, Sweden. Based on the use of a difference-in-difference estimator and weighted displacement quotients, our results demonstrate a significant reduction in crimes reported to the police in the intervention neighbourhood relative to control areas, with signs of spatial diffusion of benefits rather than displacement of crime to adjacent areas. This result is, however, mainly driven by a decrease in reported incidents of vandalism, while no effect is observed in regard to violent crime in public places. Implications of the findings and further research are discussed.

Although urbanization and population density predict levels of crime and disorder quite well, the amount of crime and disorder is not evenly distributed in urban environments. Rather, crime and disorder are concentrated to certain areas, places, and neighborhoods within these urban settings. Crime preventive efforts in these high-crime areas are thus of utter importance to reduce the overall amount of crime as well as fear of crime among the residents. The study at hand aims to evaluate the effects of such a crime preventive effort in high-crime, vulnerable urban neighborhoods in the city of Malmö, Sweden, through a community crime prevention program – Business Improvement District (BID, in Swedish Boende, Integration och Delaktighet). In this study, the BID-concept represents a collaboration among local property owners in conjunction with local agencies (e.g. city offices, the police, the fire and rescue service, etc.) acting under the motto“clean and safe” neighborhoods. Internationally, BID has been implemented world-wide with positive effects on crime and feelings of insecurity Sweden, showed positive effects on fear of crime among residents during a pre-post evaluation design, although the reported level of crime remained more or less unchanged. In this study, an extensive evaluation design is implemented where several sources of information (e.g. reported crimes, calls for emergency service, and neighborhood surveys) are applied to evaluate the effect of BID in treated areas, compared to matched control areas, using a pre-post equivalent area comparison design. The results of the study will provide local, as well as national, policy makers and practitioners with knowledge and evidence about community crime prevention efforts in urban vulnerable residential areas

Det finns ett stort behov av att utveckla det brottsförebyggande och trygghetsskapande arbetet, att hitta nya former för samverkan samt nya aktörer som kan involveras i arbetet. Samtidigt är det viktigt att de insatser, strategier och åtgärder som genomförs utvärderas för att undersöka om arbetet får önskad effekt. I den här rapporten utvärderas ett lokalt fastighetsägarinitiativ där fastighetsägarna i ett par bostadsområden i Malmö gått samman och bildat en förening, Fastighetsägare Sofielund, för att tillsammans arbeta för att göra Sofielund till ett attraktivt och tryggt bostadsområde. Utvärderingen bygger på information från ett flertal olika informationskällor så som uppgifter om anmälda brott, fastighetsägaroch boendeenkäter samt intervjuer med fastighetsägare och andra med insyn i föreningens arbete. Utifrån dessa informationskällor analyseras utvecklingen avseende bland annat brottslighet, upplevd trygghet och lokal problemnivå under en fyraårsperiod. I de fall där data funnits tillgängliga har utvecklingen i Sofielundsområdena jämförts med utvecklingen i två kontrollområden. Det övergripande syftet med utvärderingen är att bidra till kunskap om brottsförebyggande och trygghetsskapande arbete i stadsmiljö med ett särskilt fokus på särskilt utsatta bostadsområden.