Antisocial behaviour in childhood has shown to play an important part to why individuals act in an antisocial way in adulthood. To prevent problem behaviour in an early age, which could lead to antisocial behaviour, is important for these individuals. To be able to prevent problem behaviour we need to know what works and what doesn’t work. An authoritarian childrearing style helps to develop children’s cognition and could also be preventing against a development of antisocial behaviour. To neglect or not react to a child success or mistakes are very inappropriate for the child because then the child´s development could be harmed. Parenting programs has shown to be requested by many parents in earlier studies and an especially good place for these to be held were the preschools, because they were a safe place for the parents.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the football supporters’ perspective on problems and the police in a Swedish football context. More specific, the study examined the indirect effect of legitimacy on perceived violence/disorders and the supporter-police relationship through social identity, aggression and morality. The study is quantitative in nature and a web-based survey was distributed to recruit football supporters to participate. The sample consisted of 800 football supporters who were minimum 15 years old. The results showed that Swedish football supporters, in general, perceive a small amount of problems with violence/disorders in a football context and, further, supporters perceived the supporter-police relationship as bad with a need for a change. The present study’s mediation analyses showed that legitimacy had a statistically significant indirect effect on the supporter-police relationship through both social identity and aggression. Based on the result, future research should continue investigate supporter-police relationship from the supporter perspective. The police could use this information in their development of future strategies to work for a better relationship and mutual respect with supporters. Concluding remarks of this study highlights the essential aspect supporters contribute in the work of safety and order in a football context in Sweden. The legitimacy of the Swedish police is low from the supporter’s point of view which damages the relationship between them.

In Sweden, an increase in domestic violent extremism is identified. The increase especially applies to islamistic extremism. Due to this information the current study examines the causes and mechanisms behind the radicalization of ordinary citizens in Europe and in the West world. The results show that the causal mechanism behind radicalization are complex and consist of different components and factors. Furthermore, evidence indicates that the mechanism behind radicalization into violent extremism is almost identical with the mechanism who explain crime in general. Additionally, the causes and processes of radicalization of islamistic extremism to a high extent also explain white-power and other right wing extremism.

Background: Liberalization of cannabis is a highly debated subject and is happening around the world. The aim of this study is collecting all relevant studies investigating potential effects the liberalization have on prevalence of cannabis, hard drugs and criminality. Methods: The studies were collected by searching in the database PubMed which is the largest database for medical and substance journals. 18 studies were found to have appropriate quality to be presented as a result. 8 studies were conducted regarding liberalization of recreational use of cannabis and 10 were investigating the effects on prevalence from a medical cannabis legislation. Results: 6 studies found an increase of prevalence of cannabis after the liberalization of cannabis, 8 found no difference and 2 found a decrease of prevalence. 2 studies found an increase in prevalence for hard drugs after a liberalization of cannabis, 2 studies found no difference in use and 2 found a decrease of prevalence. Regarding criminality no studies showed an increase of criminality after liberalization of cannabis, 2 studies found no difference and 2 studies found a decrease of prevalence. Conclusions: The studies indicate that there will either be a small increase of prevalence regarding use of cannabis after liberalization or no difference. Unclear evidence regarding hard drugs since no majority in results were found. Criminality seems to either be stable or decrease after a liberalization of cannabis.

RAPE IN INTIMATE RELATIONS: A LITERATURE REVIEW EXPOLORING SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DIFFERENT SEXUAL IDENTITIES ANNA HART Hart, A. Rape in intimate relations: A literature review exploring similarities and differences between different sexual identities. Project for a two year master degree in Criminology 30 hp. Malmö University: Faculty of Health and Society, Department of Criminology, 2014. There is a general assumption that the perpetrator of rape is male and the victim is a woman. The man and the woman are given different attributes to fit masculine and feminine roles in a relationship. This is affecting the way rape is viewed, which by definition not only consists of penetration, and takes place in heterosexual, as well as homosexual relations. The sexual violence is hard to establish when, for example both the perpetrator and the victim are female. Previous researchers have been focusing on and chosen to study either men or women, but have not compared rape within all different sexual identities. The purpose of this literature review is firstly to explain and analyse how modern research problematizes rape within different sexual relationships and if it is described differently, depending upon which gender relationship it takes place in. In order to identify the central aspects, for the purpose of this study, twelve empirical studies have been selected and analysed in order to encompass central aspects in light of gender roles with support from hegemonic masculinity and radical feministic theories. The result from these studies confirm, that when the contents of the rape are analysed, the mechanisms of abuse indicate similarities, regardless of gender, regardless of sexual orientation. The individuals who committed rape revealed how the power maintenance was a central element evenly divided between the sexes. But, the results also suggest that within homosexual relationships there are other factors such as homophobia and stigmatization embedded which are hindering the individuals from seeking help or to prosecuting. Regardless of sexual orientation the victims minimized the act of rape, which can be explained as the normalization process.The theories of hegemonic masculinity and radical feminism continue to view rape as sex-linked. This literature review aims to acknowledge that rape can occur in all relations and tries to challenge the heteronormative view, which still characterizes the victim-perpetrator relationship.

In this study, the main focus has been the medias construction of Malmo in conjunction with the bombing of the judical center the night of 1 December 2014. This is done through a discourse analysis of six swedish tabloid newspapers, evening and daily newspapers. The thesis uses the theoretical points from Stanley Cohen, Moral panic, and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory. The six tabloid newspapers are the very first reports that indicate the bombing in Malmo. The tabloid newspapers has been analysed by sic different discourses. These discourses are: Bombing of the judical center in the city of Malmo, the wonder about who/what is behind the attack, police, witnesses' statements and the first bombing. The results shows that the newspapers constructs reports in a way that provokes and will make the audience react. The newspapers also uses a number of terms and phrases that create pictures of Malmo as an unsafe city.

‘Knarkrondellen’, which translates to ‘Drug Roundabout’, is a known hot spot for drug trading in Malmö 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.

Background: The media have an influential role within society and with media becoming increasingly more accessible over a number of different platforms it is important to comprehend what information is being received by audiences in order to then understand the consequences. Sweden has a reputation of being one of the most reputable countries, however a new, less flattering image has been emerging. There is a growing interest in what is happening in Sweden, especially since US President Donald Trump made his illusive comments in February 2017. Aim: The aim of this study is to explore how news sources in the Western world portray crime in Sweden. Two central questions are examined, (1) what crimes in Sweden are reported in western newspapers, and (2) what are the dominant themes in western newspaper’s discussions of crime in Sweden? Method: Qualitative content analysis was employed to evaluate 249 newspaper articles gathered through NewsBank database. Content of these articles became data which was coded via a data-driven coding frame. Data was partially double coded in an attempt to check consistency. Results: Part one results find that the most popular crime type in Western media crime in Sweden reports are violent crimes. A total of 111 articles in the sample written exclusively about specific events, 76 of which are violent offences. Part two of results explores the broader discourse. Conclusion: The focus on violent crimes is linked to a political discussion surrounding growing support for populist politics. The predominant narratives are, that immigration is to blame for rising crime levels, and Sweden’s identity crisis.

Assessing risk had always been the key focus when it comes to recidivism. Using risk assessment instruments, it is possible to predict the outcome of recidivism dichotomously. These measures, however, can only predict between 70-80 percent of validity, and they specify only levels of risk (low-medium-high), but not time. Therefore, the aim of this study is to define time of recidivism to supplement risk assessment with a possible new actuarial approach and fill out gaps in the existing literature. To do so a systematic literature review was conducted with a controlled search on exact time points. All the fourteen studies resulted in the final model were: published in the past 20 years, had some connection to time and were quantitative. The results highlighted the importance of the first year, especially the first half of the year as the most critical period regarding recidivism. Three different time periods were identified: (1) the end of the first month; (2) between the second and the third; (3) at the end of the 6th. Consequently, it might be beneficial to target these critical periods with more intense supervision/intervention in order to decrease the likelihood of recidivism.

Rape myths are pervasive and play a major role in the perpetuation and substantiation of sexual violence against women. This study sought to examine if rape myths could affect criminal case outcomes. An overview of rape myths and their foundations in feminist theories was presented. Four major rape myths (husbands cannot rape their wives, women enjoy rape, women ask to be raped, and women lie about rape) were operationalized into victim and case characteristics and subsequently assessed to determine if there is a relationship between the variables and criminal case outcomes (suspect arrest and suspect conviction). A sample (n = 463) of cases that were gathered from two jurisdictions in a north-eastern U.S. state were analysed. Results indicate that victim participation, consent defence, and other crimes being present in the initial police report were the strongest predictors of suspect arrest and suspect conviction. Weapon use was a strong predictor of suspect arrest and substance use was a strong predictor of suspect conviction.

Background: Young people is associated with a significant increase in risky health behaviors, such as substance use and behavioral addictions. Previous research suggests that social media is increasingly being used for illegal drug trade.

Objectives: To investigate how social media platforms are used for the illegal drug trade, and whether there is evidence that social media have increased drug use among young people.

Method: A systematic literature review was conducted including literature from 2010 and onwards.

Results: Findings show that public platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are used for advertising illegal drugs, whilst private platforms such as Wickr and Snapchat are used for arranging transactions. There is no evidence that social media causes increased use of drugs among young people. Instead, the findings were highlighting factors that are associated with an increased risk of usage.

Conclusions: Public platforms are used for advertising and private platforms are used for arranging transactions. There are indications, but no direct evidence, that social media increases the use of drugs among young people. 

Cybercrime has significantly increased the last two decades on a global scale, and its high complexity and annual cost in society has made it a great political matter of combating the crime rates. Most concerning is social engineering, which is likely involved in most cybercriminal attacks. Social engineering is a set of behavioral actions that are performed on other people to affect people’s behavior and decisions in favors of the social engineering attacker. Due to the challenging human aspects of social engineering this study aims to identify which social engineering methods cybercriminal use in their interaction with their victims, and how social engineering unfolds in the given contexts of the crime. This study has conducted qualitative research including 20 semistructured in-depth interviews with victims or attempted victims of digital fraud. The result from the analysis identified different social actions performed by the perpetrator in trying to fraud their victim. Most significant is credibility which was achieved by the perpetrator through different social technics. Various life circumstances also made the victims/attempted victims more vulnerable to the perpetrator’s manipulative behavior of excuses and persuasion. With a credible identity and various factors contributing to the victim's vulnerability, social engineering manifests itself by using psychological behavioral techniques to manipulate victims into believing they are engaging in a legitimate action.

Fear of Crime remains a relevant theme in criminological research. Its associations include damage to psychological well-being, decreases in collective cohesion and trust, and populism. Located in the field of victimology, previous research found that significant predictors for Fear of Crime are: Previous Victimization, Previous Victimization with a Hate-Motive, Severity of Previous Victimization, Perceived Risk and Risk Control. This study will aim to investigate if the dynamics of Fear of Crime established by previous research are applicable in a LGBT population. Subsequently the sub-groups sexual minorities, bisexuals, and trans-people are compared, filling a literature gap. The sample consists of 353 self-identified LGBT people at Malmö University who filled out a self-report survey inquiring about previous victimization, fear of crime, perceived motives of previous victimization, perceived risk of victimization, and tactics to reduce risk of victimization. The predictors were entered into a block-wise multiple regression model as well as a path-analysis. Both Perceived Risk and Risk Control were entered after the other predictors. The results showed that Severity of Previous Victimization was significantly (p < .001) and positively (β = .267) predicting Fear of Crime. Additionally, Severity of Previous Victimization significantly (p < .01) and positively (β = .206) predicted Perceived Risk which in turn predicted (p < .001, β = .208) Fear of Crime. Risk Control did not have a statistically significant effect size (p > .05). In the sub-group comparison, Perceived Risk did not have a significant effect size (p > .05) among the trans-people. The study concludes that Severity of Previous Victimization both has a direct and indirect effect on Fear of Crime, in the LGBT population, but not among the trans-people sub-group, suggesting that future research as well as policy makers need to take such differences into account. Similar conclusions are drawn regarding Risk Control. 

The aim of this study is to increase our understanding of the various factors that are linked to perceptions of places seen as safe or unsafe on four neighborhoods in Malmo. A combination of both qualitative and quantitative research methods has been implemented to answer the questions of this essay. The respondent’s answers identified three main categories. The results of this study acknowledge that physical and social disorders and experience in criminals or gang-members being present on a certain place actually has an impact on factors respondents identified as important for whether a place feels safe or unsafe. Visual control, for example different lighting methods were identified as another important factor for increasing perceived safety, but however not as important for immigrants. Collective efficacy is considered as a benefit in stigmatized areas with low collective efficacy.

Abstract This study provides a comprehensive literature review of the recent peer-review and journal articles pertaining to illegal drug use in South Africa. Potential articles pertaining to South African illicit drug use published between 1994 and April 2019 were identified through an exhaustive literature pursuit. Forty-two articles, which were thematically analyzed, identifying socio-cultural and socio-demographic factors associated with illegal drug use. The results show that adolescents, youths and being of black African race were the most population groups abusing illicit drugs in South Africa, women were the least population group disturbed by illegal drug use and that this behaviour declined with education among female learners. The review uncovered important factors associated with illegal drug use. These include the easy availability of drugs, weak parental control, violence and poverty and unemployment. In addition, there have not been many studies in other races and social classes. Furthermore, most of the studies reviewed were done in major cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg, which makes this research challenging to be generalized. This study recognized gaps in the literature reviewed and alluded to possibilities for future practical research. This study proposes the delivery of ‘evidence-based strategies’ which focuses more on the distribution of evidence-based approaches and policies that are designed to meet the clear needs of communities. In addition, South Africa should implement longitudinal research about drug user life histories. Keywords: Criminology, Illegal drug use, Literature review, Socio-demographic, Socio-cultural, South Africa.

Domestic violence is now better be addressed as a global issue rather than just a family or regional problem. This research study has focused on highlighting the factors that contribute to the ceaseless occurrence of domestic violence. Besides, it concentrates on the consequences that might take place due to the various forms of domestic violence. As domestic violence has exceeded the boundary of just being an indoor personal matter, it must be dealt with precise assistance provided by the law and judicial authorities. Women should be respected and valued by all means as well as their choices and decisions have to be prioritized by men. Even if the acts of vicious domestic violence can't be eliminated overnight, the measures aiding abolition of domestic violence ought to be taken inevitably. As a whole, we must not forget that a healthy moralistic surrounding or environment can also play a significant role to combat domestic violence.

Recent years’ terrorist attacks in Europe and the flow of foreign fighters joining the terrorist organisation Daesh, has made the understanding of radicalisation evermore crucial. This thesis investigates if push and pull factors leading into violent Islamic extremism differentiate between men and women. Furthermore, it assesses how preventive measures from The United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark targets push and pull factors and if these are sensitive to sex. To fulfil this objective an exploratory thematic analysis was used to synthesise secondary qualitative research surrounding push and pull factors. The push and pull factor analysis revealed three trends: there were limited variation in the overall categories describing the push and pull factors present for men and women; what caused push and pull factors to manifest differed according to sex; and, there were differences in how much men and women were affected by these factors. The assessment of prevention measures showed that none of the measures explicitly mentioned push and pull factors, yet they all had the potential of targeting these. Sex was included in some aspects of the measures, but was not a consideration in relation to the targeting of push and pull factors. The thesis ends with a discussion of what implications the found results have for practice and offers suggestions to how prevention measures can be improved.

Online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is a growing problem that transcends geographical borders. In order to improve cooperation between international law enforcement, knowledge concerning the jurisdiction, procedure and issues with investigations in different countries is needed. This study aims to provide information on the Swedish context by (a) exploring how the Swedish police work with investigations of online CSAM, and (b) identifying potential challenges. The research questions have been answered by qualitative interviews with law enforcement personnel. Systematic text condensation revealed that there is a significant difference in the procedure between the police regions and that four major problems face the police. First, the police are dependent upon digital forensic experts but have limited access to their expertise and other resources due to the crime not being prioritised. Second, Internet Service Providers are not required to save their users IP-addresses, which complicates identification of the suspect. Third, a holistic perspective within the police is required. Investigators should work with all sexual crimes against children and not just CSAM, in order to be able to see reoccurring elements in the identification process. Four, there is a lack of public knowledge concerning CSAM that affects the resources and number of cases the police receive. The Swedish police is currently creating regional cybercrime centres in an attempt to create a national strategy for computer-related investigations. The implications on the victim identification process and development of treatment for offenders are discussed, as well as future directions. Clearer guidelines are needed.

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious problem, and the consequences extend beyond the physical damage that may occur. Police officers are often first responders, why it is important that they possess awareness and skills that facilitate them to identify IPV and the characteristics for the involved parties, in order to reduce further consequences and escalation. Aim: The aim of this thesis was to explore offender characteristics and typologies of IPV as it occurs within police reports from Funen police district, and to discuss how this information can be used in a police setting. Method: A random sample of 400 reported cases of violence were coded, and 60 reported intimate partner violence cases were identified. Descriptive statistics and a two-step clustering were used to explore the 60 cases of IPV. Results: Overall, it was found, that the offenders of the reported IPV cases in Funen's police are in accordance with studies of offenders of IPV in other contexts. A typology was developed from the clusters which resulted in three different offender types; generally violent, alcohol-related violent and family violent. These clusters also resemble groups found in previous studies. Discussion: The results can be used to give an insight into how IPV occurs in the police district, and form a basis for the understanding and developing of the prioritization of the phenomenon. However, the descriptions and typologies are to be understood as a snapshot and the results are not universal or a general description of IPV, why further and deeper investigations will be necessary.

This evaluation examines Bodens Municipality's use of ”föräldraKomet”, why there is a need for an intervention, prerequisites for running the program, the effect of the program, and finally the financial cost. The study has been conducted by doing interviews, collecting documents and surveying past participants of the program. All data has been compiled using a method of text condensation to retrieve the essence of what has emerged. ”FöräldraKomet”is a parenting program developed in the early 2000s at ”Forsknings- och Utvecklingsenheten” in Stockholm. The basic idea of ”föräldraKomet” is that by supporting parents in developing healthy relationships with their children and reinforcing positive behavior rather than negative, unnecessary daily conflicts can be avoided.The evaluation results and conclusions show that ”föräldraKomet” has responded to the needs that Bodens Municipality had identified, but that the development of universal and indicated prevention is necessary to provide support to all parents in the municipality with different needs on different levels. Former participants of the program in Boden to great extent express that their children's problems have been reduced or disappeared completely after undergoing the program. The conditions for conducting ”föräldrakomet” in the community are positive and this program has been prioritized through cooperation between schools and social services. Finally, parental support is generally cost beneficial. By using ”föräldraKomet” to prevent a child from developing anti-social behavior as an adult, the municipality saves more than one krona for every krona it spends. However, it is important that ”föräldraKomet” is offered only to parents with problems that can be dealt with using this program, to achieve cost efficiency. Keywords: Boden, Evaluation, Föräldrakomet, Parental Support, Prevention.

The Finnish police have power and influence as they are gate keepers of the criminal justice system. Governmental crime reduction policies rely on the actions of the police and in 2020 the Finnish police made a TikTok video to warn adolescences about dangers of sexting. My thesis uses Lerner’s Just world hypothesis and Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be as a theoretical framework, and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) to identify how the victim is represented in the TikTok video. The analysis on the content of the TikTok video is representing the victim as culpable for the crime against him/her. When the analysis is applied to the theoretical framework, it can be argued that the instructive TikTok video bears pressing social and institutional problems and extends people’s responsibility for avoiding crime and therefore fails achieving a balanced policy between crime prevention and criminal justice response.

Abstract: Cybercrime refers to any illegal use of technology, a computer, networked device or a network for criminal acts. It constitutes a rapidly evolving and complex phenomenon as the Internet is ruling on almost every sector of human activity. Innovation plays a highly significant role in the growth of an economy. However, every time there is an advancement in the field of technology, there is bound to be other adverse effects. Such is the case with criminology. In this end, the prevalence of cybercrime is alarmingly increasing, and there have been several attempts by the government and other concerned agencies at stemming its escalation (Curtis et al., 2009). The following thesis shows the investigation of the rise of cybercrime in Greece. It is a systematic literature review available on this topic, aiming to explore areas such as the preparedness of the government in the fight against cybercrime, and the consideration that, in so doing, it is obligated to protect the rights of intellectual property as well as the protection of the rights to privacy of its citizens (Gobran, 2015). Of all the categories of information technology-related crimes, cybercrimes are the most common. The thesis also explores the conventions and laws employed by law enforcement in the efforts to counter the activities of cybercrime, including their effectiveness. It also establishes the different sectors and industries with the highest rates of cybercrime activities and the ways in which these sectors are fighting against these activities.

Gender based violence constitutes a violation of human rights and disproportionately affects women and girls. The majority of incidents of GBV in refugee settings are perpetrated by intimate partners. In the present paper risk factors contributing to GBV were traced in five studies regarding GBV in refugee camps. An ecological perspective consisting of four levels (individual, micro-system/relationship, exo-system/community, macro-system/culture/society) was used in order to analyze the factors. Individual factors included frustration, substance use and lack of awareness. Relationship factors included male dominance, women’s economic dependence and infidelity. Community factors included inadequate camp facilities, poverty, social isolation and lack of support as well as weak law enforcement. Cultural factors included cultural gender roles and marriage practices. The ecological framework acts as a valuable tool in order to understand the complex interplay among these factors that leads to GBV, as well as to create suitable interventions to improve women’s well being.

In recent years, have the focus on Incels increased due to various deadly attacks that have been associated with extreme misogynistic content. This study aims to discuss current online prevention methods’ applicability with respect to Incels and to comprehend if online prevention methods can mitigate future attacks in Nordic countries. To provide knowledge of current online prevention methods a systematic literature review in accordance with the PRISMA was conducted. Several databases e.g., Google Scholar and PsycINFO were searched for articles published in peer-reviewed international journals. Ten articles which included online moderation measures regarding extremist content and Incels were admitted. Additionally, a non-systematic review was conducted in relation to reports regarding Incels published by Nordic organizations. Four reports were found. The Routine Activity Theory was then applied to the results from the papers found in the systematic and the non-systematic review. One limitation of the review is that only a few articles have been included which makes generalizability difficult. Numerous methods can be applied regarding Incels when it comes to online prevention measures. However, current methods seem to consist of a duplexity, where the moderation methods influence different SoMe platforms, but also create echo chambers on encrypted platforms where an increase of Incel radicalization materializes. To mitigate future attacks the use of proactive online prevention methods, e.g., detection tools and connectivity tools should be used by different platforms and law enforcement, as the capable guardian, to allocate imminent threats from Incels. 

American school shootings have received a lot of media, public and academic attention within the last two decades. Still, reasons behind the shocking events lie undiscovered. Although individual factors have been widely examined, researchers are yet to find commonalities. This thesis reviewed evidence of macro-sociological explanations for American school shootings and attempted to identify the roles of culture, cultural marginalisation and masculinity in American multi-victim school shootings using seven case studies from 1999-2018. Results identified cultural marginalisation as a key factor in all of the cases, whereas hegemonic and violent masculinities received some support. In addition, interconnectedness and relationships between anomie, culture, cultural marginalisation, masculinity and school shootings were discussed in more detail. Finally, future suggestions were made, and conclusions were drawn.

In recent years, Europe has witnessed a flow of refugees from war struck areas who seek asylum in various European countries, where Sweden is one of the recipient country. A large portion of these refugees comprise of unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs). Aim: The aim of the present study is to examine how unaccompanied refugee minors have the conditions in Malmo when it comes to individual health and lifestyle (tobacco, alcohol and drug use) and social environment (absence of family, living situation, school, social support and future prospects) as compared to the general population of the same age; and also, if these conditions could possibly put them at a risk to encounter or commit a crime. Method: The data is collected using quantitative survey questionnaires distributed to URMs (N=30). The data of the general population has been obtained through Region Skåne. Results: The findings indicate that in comparison to the general population, URMs report high level of ill-health, tobacco use, access to narcotics and low social support, which are termed as risk factors. The institute of school, however, is termed a protective factor for the URMs, where they score almost equivalent to the general population in terms of school satisfaction and better than them in terms of help and support from the teachers. The implication of the findings are discussed further in the paper.

Lone actor terrorism is a serious growing threat in Western European countries as the number of lone actor terrorist attacks have multiplied over the last 15 years. However, knowledge on this type of terrorism is insufficient. As a result, this study evaluates whether there are common personal, social, psychological and operational characteristics among lone actor terrorists (LATs), and if any profile can be drawn in regard to a lone actor terrorist. A total of 36 LATs were identified between 1st January 2015 and 31st December 2016 in Western European countries through the Global Terrorism Database. These LATs were profiled in regard to their sociodemographic characteristics, attack characteristics, method of radicalization and ideology, modus operandi, and typology. Findings of this study show that although there is no one single unique profile for LATs, there are some common characteristics that can aid policy makers and security and intelligence agencies to plan a more effective counter-terrorism policies and operations.

Criminal profiling methods have been shown to be useful in predicting offender characteristics based on crime-scene and victim characteristics. However, a limited amount of studies within this field have been conducted in a Swedish cohort. In this study, data on 12 offenders with a conviction for murder, manslaughter or attempted murder or manslaughter from a metropolitan city in Sweden were analyzed. Court documents were used to gather information on offenders, crime-scene, victim, and offender-victim relationships. A two-step cluster analysis was used to determine if common characteristics were amongst them in order to form profiles. The outcome was two profiles; the more prominent one characterized by a young male, single, unemployed, with a history of substance abuse and violent criminality, using a knife against friends or acquaintances. That profile was also comparable to a profile from a previous study done within the same cohort. The collective aim of these studies is to build a longitudinal database on violent offenders in this city, which hopefully could aid the Swedish Police to possibly identify suspects in future violent crimes.

Poverty it is said to have harsh outcomes on one's antisocial or even delinquent behavior. Other factors as well lead an individual to antisocial behavior those are the environment that they are living, and their genes that have passed from one generation to the other one. Parents, poverty, environment, genes and social determinants affect one's involvement in a crime and also affect the health in distinct ways. The focus of this essay is on the African American population within the American society and the health disparities that exist in this situation. We try to understand and answer if these health disparities were created after their birth, or pre-existed and were carried through the generations. One of the main issues is the examination of how much is the prison or incarceration in charge for these health disparities, or how much did these disparities previously exist, out of other reasons. These issues are put on a life-course perspective, and there is shown how much these morbidities affect one's life from the beginning till incarceration. A certain policy implication is made to eliminate those disparities by improving maternal, child and family health status.

Much research related to incarceration and re-entry has been focused on male models, and thus ignoring the unique circumstances of women offenders. Previous research argues that evident differences are found between the two sexes and these should not be neglected. Furthermore, both previous research and the theory of cognitive transformation has been utilized to analyse the results in a theoretical framework. The aim with this thesis is to explore the difficulties women face when re-entering into society after a criminal lifestyle. Hence, understand how women encounter and tackle these problems. Qualitative semistructured interviews with six former female addicts and offenders and one operations manager were tape-recorded. Transcription data was analysed using thematic analysis. The results showed that it was difficult to re-establish a healthy relationship with children. All the women came from dysfunctional families and no support from family members was a challenging aspect in the re-entry process. Substance abuse was also found among all the women, which showed that it competed with both parental and employment responsibilities and finding a job was easier than holding down one. Furthermore, ending contact with antisocial peers was important, however, meeting new people was difficult. Lastly, the results showed that all the women had subjective motivation keeping them on the path of lasting change. This study concludes three ways to improve female re-entry processes, (1) greater aid to women with substance abuse, (2) continued therapeutic assistance post treatment and, (3) positive role-modelled guidance for young women.

The thesis aims to highlight successful stories of female ex-offender reentry into the community. Success, rather than failure, seems to be a current research gap in reentry literature. To gain an insight on the matter, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with seven female ex-offenders. These women had previously taken part of the program, Exodus Ministries in Dallas, Texas. Systematic Text Condensation (STC) was utilized to analyze the qualitative data from the interviews. The results were then discussed in a theoretical framework in regard to previous research. Two theories were utilized; namely, the theory of “making good” by Maruna (2001) and the theory of cognitive transformation by Giordano, Cernkovich and Rudolph (2002). In conclusion, the results of the thesis point to reentry programs, such as Exodus Ministries; motherhood; religion; fundamental life changes; identity transformation and utilizing resources as essential factors needed for successful reentry into the community upon release from institutionalization.

PURPOSE - The issue of drug markets on social media platforms are under-researched. To help address the research gap, this paper accounts for the emerging drug dealing trends surrounding the community on TikTok. The purpose of this paper is to understand how drug dealers use a trending social media platform, namely TikTok, to advertise and sell illegal drugs and how the environment on TikTok facilitates drug promotions on the platform.

METHOD - Data were gathered during seven weeks of netnographic fieldwork conducted among Swedish accounts on TikTok marketing drugs through video- and image posts. All evidence of content in which drug marketing was evident, including drug dealer profiles and open interactions of drug dealers and customers in the comment sections, was saved, coded and analyzed. The concepts of routine activity theory were applied and discussed in relation to the prevalence of the drug markets on TikTok.

FINDINGS - In total, 116 posts with content of advertisements of illegal drugs were identified, divided into 43 Sweden-based profiles. Some drug dealer profiles were more professional than others and offered various drug types and services. Drug dealers adopted several marketing strategies, facilitated by the functions and algorithms of TikTok, to promote their drug dealing profiles and promotions.

KEYWORDS -  netnography, cyber-environment, drug promotion, sale of drugs, algorithms, social media platforms, drug dealing activity.

The current study investigates relationship between compliance with COVID regulations to public opinions using a Criminology perspective, by conducting quantitative research with both Sweden university students and Hong Kong university alumnus. Results show how different variables can be associated incompliance with COVID recommendations in these two states within differenttime frames. The study discovers that internal efficacy contributes most to theassociation of complying with COVID recommendations. The lack of externalefficacy and government warning variants redirect efficacy construct intoindividual efforts, where social warning variable is at best to apply on theSwedish context. Future research can contribute to the application of globalhealth recommendations, with the considerations of establishing them intodistinct geographical contexts. 

Violence risk assessment is important given the impact and consequences it has on offenders, victims and the public. Different tools have been developed to assess an offender’s risk. However, so far these tools are based on male theories of offending and its applicability among female offenders has been questioned by proponents of the gendered perspective. The gendered perspective argues that violence and criminal behaviour emerges based on experiences that are different between men and women. The present systematic review aims to inform about the predictive validity of current risk assessment tools among female offenders to establish whether there is a need to develop female-specific tools. 17 studies have been reviewed and evidence overall supports the gendered perspective by showing that current tools have no, or only a limited, ability to predict future behaviour among women. Some promising results have been delivered by tools that include the ‘central eight’ risk factors which indicates that some of these factors might be relevant for female risk assessment. However, consideration of qualitative and quantitative differences of risk factors should be included in risk assessment among women to improve the predictive validity. The results are discussed in the light of a feminist perspective but also give a critical view on violence risk assessment in general. Overall, this systematic review calls for more research that focuses on gender-specific risk factors and that promotes the development of new tools.

Background: Veiled Muslim women are particularly vulnerable to hate crime vic-timization. This is both due to the visibility of the veil and to Islamophobic stereo-types. Islamophobic hate crimes target a central part of these women’s identity and have the potential to affect both actual and potential victims in a multitude of ways. However, research on this particular group is limited, especially in Sweden. Aim: The aim was to explore how Islamophobic hate crimes are experienced by veiled Muslim women in Malmö. Method: Eight veiled Muslim women were re-cruited through Muslim associations in Malmö and interviewed through focus group interviews and individual interviews. Three of the women wrote diaries about their experiences. The interview data was analysed through thematic analy-sis. Results: Four themes were identified in the analysis: a) Islamophobia is a part of veiled Muslim women’s everyday lives and is experienced both in public places and in formal settings, b) experiences of Islamophobia restrict the women’s lives, both through limiting their behaviours and through creating geographical boundaries in the city, c) awareness of Islamophobic hate crime against other Muslim women induces a feeling of “if it can happen to her, it can happen to me too”, finally, d) international and political issues increase Islamophobia toward these women. Discussion: Islamophobia permeates the lives of veiled Muslim women across a multitude of arenas. Due to fear of victimization, Islamophobia and hate crimes threaten Muslim women’s liberty in their day-to-day lives. Thus, there is a need for authorities across a variety of domains to be aware of these women’s vulnerable position in society and work towards providing the support veiled Muslim women need.

Studies of mobility and the impact it has on individuals can be related to a number of areas such as health, human development, economy, and as in this case, crime. Mobility and its correlation to levels of crime has for time been a part of criminological theories, both as a separate factor, but also as part of greater theories and models of explanation. The impact of mobility is connected to mechanisms as to interactions on a sub areal level, such as blocks or even specific streets and addresses, meaning informal social control. The variation regarding the informal social control across different areas is therefore what regulates to level of crime. To audit exactly what impact mobility has on the level of crime, and if this impact varies depending on the type of crime is the aim of this thesis. Regression analysis has been done with data supplied by the City of Malmö regarding the level of reported assaults, burglaries, and robberies versus the level of mobility on a sub area level. The results show a significant correlation between the levels of reported assaults, robberies and level of mobility although the different types of crimes is related to theoretical explanations. Robbery and mobility is can be explained through level informal social control, but assault and mobility is more likely related to theories regarding routines, places, and rural effects.

Recent studies indicate that approximately 10- 20% of girls and boys in the 9th grade in Sweden are affected by honor-related problems (HRP). The results from these studies also show that these children tend to turn to their teachers with these specific issues. However, there is limited research concerning HRP and especially in a school context focusing on the perspective of teachers. Consequently, the aim of this thesis was to explore how HRP are approached by teachers in a school context, by focusing on their knowledge and experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand the teachers’ ideas and perceptions of this issue. The five interviewed teachers had all taken part in a learning-opportunity about HRP. To understand why the teachers approached and understood HRP the way they did, the theory of coping was used. The result shows that the teachers feel as their learningopportunity was essential for identifying, discovering, and preventing HRP. Despite this knowledge, the interviewees experienced HRP as unfamiliar, sensitive, intimidating, and difficult to detect. Therefore, coping with HRP was perceived as challenging and threatening. This led to a cautious approach, where the teachers distanced themselves from the issue and tried to avoid dealing with it. Further, the result also showed that the teachers seemed eager to improve their preventive and identifying skills and will continue to raise awareness in the classroom. A crucial task for future research will be to identify effective strategies for the identification and prevention of HRP in a school environment.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important social problem, but historically the scientific research has focused mostly on the female victims. Several reviews exist on female victims, but no on male victims. The prevalence rates presented in the literature are very heterogeneous, which has been explained by variations in methodology, a lack of a clear recognized definition and a missing golden standard. This thesis reviews prevalence rates in studies on IPV with a male victim, and answers the following questions; (1) What are the total prevalence rates in relation to the different study characteristics and do we see any significant differences within these characteristics? (2) How does the definition of intimate partner violence and study characteristics affect the prevalence rate? (3) What type of relationship do we see between the quality of studies and prevalence rate? A systematic review has been carried out resulting in 49 relevant studies on male victims of IPV. The data from these 49 studies have been extracted based on the operationalization of “definition” in categories of type of violence, type of instrument and number of survey questions and in the operationalization of study quality based on a quality index by Looney et al. (2000). A students t-test and linear regression models was conducted to answer the research questions. This study finds that men are more often victims of psychological violence than physical violence, which is in contrast to female victims. The study also finds that the introduction of each of the definition-variables results in higher prevalence rates. This indicates, that factors related to the definition are important elements in the study of IPV prevalence in male victims.

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded after a series of issues with the Macondo oil well, around the Louisiana coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, causing the death of 11 workers and wounding 17 others. On April 22, the rig sank into the ocean. Large quantities of oil have then poured into the Gulf waters for almost 3 months, causing the most serious oil spill in history. The event is critically examined in relation to the State-corporate crime integrated theoretical model by Michalowski and Kramer (2006), in particular using the institutional level (the relationship between politics and economics) and the operationality of control catalyst (the presence or absence of social control). The results are presented with a deductive strategy. Furthermore, part of the long-term consequences on the environment will be presented, using a deductive thematic strategy. I believe, in order to comprehend the importance of this study field and the relevance of my work, it is necessary to fully analyze the long-term consequences of the DWH (Deepwater Horizon) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The analysis is developed within a case study, based on a literature review. Results show that not only the long-term consequences of the oil spill on the environment are devastating on almost all the elements studied, but that the role of the State in the accident was decisive, especially for the work culture which developed during the years, that led to the accident.

Refugee crisis of 2015 has strained European asylum system, and EU member states responded by closing the borders, leaving many refugees stranded in Serbia. Preventing refugees from accessing the territory of EU has led to breeching of the international protection mechanisms and victimization of refugees. Previous research on victimization of refugees is broad but it does not explore victimization on the move. The present study thus fills a research gap and by using descriptive statistics it strives to set foundation for further research. Aim of the study is to explore the prevalence and forms of victimization against the refugee population in Serbia and to provide better understanding of the phenomenon by investigating what types of victimization and perpetrators are refugees exposed to while travelling. Quantitative method in form of descriptive statistics has been used to analyze the data collected from a sample of 153 refugees transiting through Serbia between December 2015 until December 2016. Results of the study show that the most common types of victimization are physical violence and pushbacks by police while irregularly crossing the borders. Further results show that young males are most commonly victimized, while valid results on women could not be drawn due to very low response rate. Since police violence is mostly connected to pushbacks, the great part of victimization of refugees seems to be systematic and carried out as a measure of border control. As such, refugees’ victimization is harsh breeching of humanitarian laws and international conventions. Although the research sample was small, some trends regarding the victimization of refugees on the move could be observed. The study concludes that further systematic research of the phenomenon is needed in order to prevent further victimization and improve the international protection mechanisms and support systems for one of the most vulnerable groups.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) is an increasing global issue, which is especially evident in developing countries with growing tourist industries. Costa Rica has made extensive efforts in the prevention work against these crimes, however, there is evidence that these efforts are insufficient, especially in terms of assisting victims. CSEC has received substantial attention over the last few years and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) has joined the fight against these crimes. The aim of this study is to understand the current challenges NGOs and the government is facing in helping victims and combat CSEC, as well as to investigate the collaboration between the Costa Rican government and NGOs who work within counter-trafficking departments. By using a qualitative approach during a field study in Costa Rica, the questions of issue has been answered by interviewing NGOs and government officials about their experiences. The results show that the largest obstacle in combating CSEC is the lack of awareness about the prevalence of these crimes along with financial struggles in the prevention work. Moreover, the results regarding challenges in helping victims was embedded in discrepancies on how to assist the victims, along with a lack of reintegration programs. Regarding collaboration, the results show that the communications and collaboration is overall satisfying. However, there is a clear lack of organizational coordination and counter-trafficking NGOs are not known to the government, which is pointed out as major challenges in terms of collaboration.

The framework of narrative criminology promotes the perspective that narratives, in addition to shedding light on past conduct and experience, have the ability to serve as actions themselves, but also to influence behavior (Presser, 2009). In this study, I applied the theoretical and analytical framework of narrative criminology to identify and examine notable characteristics in stories, or narratives, of illicit drug use as a coping strategy. To elicit these stories, I conducted three semi-structured interviews in the context of Malmö, Sweden centered around the topic of drug use as coping, and identified three narrative ‘themes’ common to all three stories. I further analyzed these themes to locate 1) cultural narratives, 2) how the participants negotiated agency and 3) how they employed narrative strategies to make sense of their relationship to drugs as of today. The findings of the current study lend support to many of the cornerstones of narrative criminology, suggesting that cultural narratives present in the dominant discourse can be located in individual accounts, but also that the adoption of certain narratives can promote change. I have highlighted that a narrative focus might serve as useful in drug treatment and that harm reduction and the promotion of mental wellbeing should be the main concern of Swedish drug policy, and that while narrative criminology is a useful framework for locating the effects on stories on behavior and drug use specifically, it should still be utilized in tandem with other available theoretical devices in criminology.

This paper analyses the child rights and juvenile justice system in the contemporary Russian Federation as one of the member countries, that adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. The choice of the researched country is based on the fact, that Russia is one of the few countries in the world, that has adopted a system of juvenile justice and particularly, the juvenile court as an executive juvenile legal authority, that is primarily addressed to the facilitation of child rights and its compliance to the Convention. The paper provides a qualitative content analysis on the juvenile justice and the child rights in Russia, formed in the sequential themes, in which the child rights are compiled and discussed. The results of this paper show how the juvenile justice system is developed in Russia and which advantages/disadvantages it has, as well as what are the new themes in the Russian legislation on the child rights. Therefore, these results are relevant to the field of criminology, in order to conduct future research on the child delinquency, juvenile victimology and other related areas. Thus, an important aspect of this research is to underline a need in the further research in child rights protection, specifically becoming not only as an international obligation, but a national one for all of the countries. The analysis of this paper can serve as the basis for subsequent scientific research and thereby, to contribute to the new solutions of problems associated with the realization of the child rights and their protection. 

The period 2015-2020 has remained limitless in terms of missing data on crime and immigration in the Nordic countries, starting from the number of irregular and undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, continuing with the underrepresented immigrant statistics in crime. This paper consists of a complex understanding of immigration processes across the Nordic region, establishing narrow themes associated with crime and immigration. The findings of this paper presented five essential links to the criminality among the immigrant population in the Nordic countries during 2015-2020, that were compiled from the majority of the current available studies in this research field. At this point, the paper represents official data from the Nordic countries and a narrow literature review of recent studies, which depicted immigrants as more often suspected of crimes compared to the ethnic populations, assuming that it could have established a false social identity of an individual with foreign background. The reason of that supposition is explained by the findings on migrants to be overrepresented in crime, biased “immigrant beliefs” and yet evident immigrant labelling.

Drug use is a global pandemic with overdose-related deaths on the rise. Technological advances have made drug markets more commonly located online, indicating that Darknet markets will become the drug markets of the future. While Darknet markets have existed since the year 2010, research on the phenomena is scarce. The Wall Street Market (WSM) was established in 2016 and by 2017 it was the world´s largest international cryptomarket. Flugsvamp 3.0 is the most current Swedish domestic drug market on Darknet. This study examined WSM and Flugsvamp 3.0, regarding available drug types, number of advertisements, prices and countries of origin on WSM. The study also compared prices on these cryptomarkets with the street prices of Stockholm. During the research process, WSM was shut down by law enforcement. Therefore, an additional day of data collecting on Flugsvamp 3.0 was conducted. The study utilized a method of structured simple observation. A descriptive analysis, with uni- and bivariate analyses, was conducted. The most common drug on both markets was Pharmaceuticals, or prescription drugs. The market with the lowest prices was WSM, while street prices in Stockholm were the lowest of all three marketplaces. Germany most commonly shipped drugs to Sweden, via transactions through WSM. After the closure of WSM both number of advertisements and prices increased on Flugsvamp 3.0, in general. There is a pressing need for further research on Darknet drug markets, as the efficiency of law enforcement efforts to combat drug use depends on it.

Geographic profiling is a technique used by crime investigators and the police to examine the locations of a connected series of crimes, to determine the most probable area of the offender’s residence. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, Geographic profiling helps to better interpret the spatial behavior of an offender and focuses the investigation on a specific and smaller area of the community. From the abovementioned and from previous research, we know that Geographic profiling is useful in serial crimes such as in cases of serial murderers, serial rapists etc. Having as a point of reference Malmö, because of the many shooting incidents that have happened through the last years, in this master thesis dissertation, a systematic literature review on Geographic Profiling was conducted while at the same time the usefulness of the method in locating the serial murderers was examined.

Internet has become a great part of our daily routines giving us the ability to perform various actions in many aspects of our personal and social life. The new available opportunities provided with the Internet enhancement have opened a great space for improvement in our lives but they have also provided space for new types of criminal behaviour to occur. Cyberbullying and cyberstalking are part of the wide range of criminal behaviors performed through an online device. The presence of online criminal behavior is accompanied by the increase on the online victimization rates. The aim of this paper is to explain online victimization performed through cyberbullying and cyberstalking based on the theories of routine activity, social learning and victim precipitation.The results show that online victimization is closely connected with the daily routines that individuals have accompanied by the interactions and associations that are performed during our social life who also influence the practise of online victimization. Anonymity is a commonly found factor almost always present and plays an important role on explaining the behavior itself for both the offender and the victim's side. Overall the findings show that both online offenders and online victims of cyberbullying and cyberstalking are given more engagement opportunities in the criminal act due to the constant usage and the inclusion of online devices in theor daily routines. The above accompanied with the anonymity and opportunity provided by cyberspace ease the " performance" of cyber victimization.