Why are occupational safety crimes increasing?

The objective of this article is to analyse the structure of, and trends in, reported occupational safety crimes. The central focus is directed at analysing how we might understand the substantial increase in the number of reported offences witnessed during the first decade of the 21st century. In order to analyse trends in occupational safety crimes we proceed from both official crime statistics and data that have been compiled specifically for the purposes of this study, including a nationally representative sample of offence reports relating to the occupational safety crimes reported to the police. The results show that the increase in reported offenses is primarily due to a shift in definitions and in the reactions of the authorities rather than to a powerful increase in the number of actual crimes committed. This leads to the conclusion that registered occupational safety offences should first and foremost be viewed as a measure of the work of the authorities, rather than as an indicator of real crime trends.     

STR data for the AmpFℓSTR Identifiler loci from Swedish population in comparison to European, as well as with non-European population

The modern Swedish population is a mixture of people that originate from different parts of the world. This is also the truth for the clients participating in the paternity cases investigated at the department. Calculations based on a Swedish frequency database only, could give us overestimated figures of probability and power of exclusion in cases including clients with a genetic background other than Swedish. Here, we describe allele frequencies regarding the markers in the Identifiler-kit. We have compared three sets of population samples; Swedish, European and non-European to investigate how these three groups of population samples differ. Also, all three population sets were compared to data reported from other European and non-European populations.Swedish allele frequencies for the 15 autosomal STRs included in the Identifiler kit were obtained from unrelated blood donors with Swedish names. The European and non-European frequencies were based on DNA-profiles of alleged fathers from our paternity cases in 2005 and 2006.     

Crime and reactions to crime in 34 Swedish birth cohorts: from historical descriptions to forecasting the future

This article analyses 34 Swedish birth cohorts with regard to their participation in crime as measured by data from the convictions database maintained by Statistics Sweden. Most existing cohort studies are limited to one or a few cohorts. By contrast, the present study includes 34 cohorts, i.e. all persons born in Sweden between 1958 and 1991. The article discusses methodological problems associated with this type of approach and examines the possibility of making forecasts. The central results are that the number of males with a criminal record has decreased, whereas the number of females has remained fairly stable. Forecasts indicate that the cohorts' participation in crime will continue to decrease. Research and policy implications of the findings are outlined. It is proposed to introduce cohort statistics as a standard branch within regular criminal justice statistics.     

Use of subpopulation data in Australian forensic DNA casework

DNA profiling evidence presented in court should be accompanied by a reliable estimate of its evidential weight. In calculating such statistics, allele frequencies from commonly employed autosomal microsatellite loci are required. These allele frequencies should be collected at a level that appropriately represents the genetic diversity that exists in the population. Typically this occurs at broadly defined bio-geographic categories, such as Caucasian or Asian. Datasets are commonly administered at the jurisdictional level. This paper focuses on Australian jurisdictions and assesses whether this current practice is appropriate for Aboriginal Australian and Caucasian populations alike. In keeping with other studies we observe negligible differences between Caucasian populations within Australia when segregated geographically. However segregation of Aboriginal Australian population data along contemporary State and Territory lines appears to mask the diversity that exists within this subpopulation. For this reason datasets collated along more traditional lines may be more appropriate, particularly to distinguish the most genetically differentiated populations residing in the north of the continent.     

Ownership of a cultural landmark: The case of Gotha Canal

Gotha Canal is perhaps the most gigantic construction work ever undertaken in Sweden. It is a seaway through Sweden that connects the Baltic Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. It is nowadays considered to be one of the most famous cultural landmarks in Sweden from the time it opened for traffic the canal was in 1832 until 1978 the canal was privately owned. Since then, it has been owned by the state. Such a long time of private ownership of transportation link is remarkable. This paper analyses why the change from private to state ownership finally took place and also looks at the implication of this ownership change for profit maximising behaviour and maintenance of the canal. A discussion of how ownership of a cultural landmark like Gotha Canal can be structured is also provided.     

瑞典国际民事诉讼制度初探

除了参加的有关国际公约和欧盟理事会有关规则以外 ,瑞典法院通常类推适用《司法程序法典》中有关法院特定管辖区的条款来解决国际民事诉讼的管辖权问题。域外送达依 1970年的《送达法》和《海牙送达公约》进行。《司法程序法典》对国际民事诉讼的起诉、答辩、反诉、临时保护措施、审理和判决以及上诉等问题作了规定。外国判决的执行依《判决执行法》、欧盟理事会的有关规则和《卢迦诺公约》及其参加的有关海牙公约的规定进行     

瑞典医疗保障制度对我国的启示和借鉴

瑞典完善的医疗保障制度是高福利国家的缩影。瑞典医疗保障具有医疗保障高福利性、公平性和适宜性三个特点。瑞典高福利下的医疗保障也面临高税收、老龄化、低效率、医疗福利诈骗等挑战。我国应从瑞典医疗保险制度中得到启示,坚持全民医保的目标,医疗保障水平的提高应选择循序渐进的路径。     

‘Inappropriate but not crime’? Policing racial hatred in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Racial bias afflicts police practices across the globe. Police discrimination against and mistreatment of racial and ethnic minorities is indeed difficult to underestimate. While much attention has been thus paid to racially biased policing, fewer studies examine the question from the reverse angle, namely how the police themselves combat racist offences. This article offers empirical insights into the policing of racial hatred in Sweden, a relevant yet relatively understudied case. Drawing on interviews with police officers and crime investigators, I discuss law enforcement perspectives, e.g. perceptions and reasoning in relation to the investigation of racist offences. Findings evince a rather narrow approach as regards the constructions of racist motive that involves a relatively restricted use of bias labelling in identifying hate incidents, especially when the boundaries of racial hostility are perceived as blurred. I argue that while such an approach may reflect a legitimate effort to demonstrate the existence of a motive behind an offence, it may also lead to an underestimation of more mundane forms of racism and their harms inflicted upon racialized individuals and communities. The results have implications for ‘recognition’ and ‘belonging’ as benchmarks of democratic policing, and ‘the promise of inclusion’ associated with combatting hate crimes.     

Expressive Crimes in Post‐Socialist States of Estonia,Latvia and Lithuania1

The objective of this study is to examine the social determinants of violent victimization, with the principal focus being directed at the significance of neighbourhood conditions. By combining data from victim surveys with information on the neighbourhoods in which the survey respondents live, we have been able to study both the individual and household characteristics, and also the factors specific to different neighbourhoods that are associated with violent victimization. What we are able to show is that the violence that occurs in the residential neighbourhood constitutes only a small fraction of the violent incidents to which people are exposed. Further, the violence that occurs within the neighbourhood takes place to a large extent within the victim's home. This suggests that exposure to violence is associated with neighbourhood conditions only to a limited extent. More detailed analyses of the violence that does occur within the neighbourhood show no effects of neighbourhood conditions when controls are included for individual and household characteristics. The conclusion, therefore, is that we are unable to find any clear neighbourhood effects in relation to violent victimization. The differences that we initially note between different types of neighbourhood in the proportions reporting exposure to violence are too a large degree the result of selection processes. These do not, however, in themselves increase the risk for violent victimization.     

Testing for genetic structure in different urban Argentinian populations

Fifteen autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) markers (D3S1358, HUMTH01, D21S11, D18S51, PENTA E, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, CSF1PO, PENTA D, HUMvWA, D8S1179, HUMTPOX, FGA) were analyzed in 1734 individuals living in urban areas of cities from six different Argentinian provinces (Buenos Aires, Neuquén, Tucumán, La Pampa, San Luis, Santa Cruz) in order to determine if a common urban database could be used in Argentina for forensic purposes. Frequencies estimates, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), and other parameters of forensic interest were computed. Comparisons between the six populations, and with published data from one Native American population from Argentina and other urban populations from Argentina and Europe were also performed. Our results reveal evidences for population structure, both when testing for genetic differentiation and when comparing frequencies distributions between different pairs of populations. Therefore, caution should be taken when using a common pooled database with general forensic purposes in Argentina.     

Women in campaigns 1550–1850 household and homosociality in the Swedish army

The article presents the main results from my study of social conditions in the Swedish Army between 1550 and 1850. The focus is on women's involvement and importance in the military. The most strikingly result is that women for a long time played a more crucial role in the Army than many people are unaware of. As a consequence, the unisexual, masculine, compulsory, military service which existed during most of the 20th century can be treated as an historical parenthesis. Nowadays women are permitted to serve in the military as soldiers, in older times women fulfilled their military duties as soldiers' wives. In a long-time perspective, the military role of women has shifted from wife to professional: the article explores this process. Soldiers on campaigns in the 17th century built households and had families, regardless of wartime or peacetime, and their households were also a natural part of the military, simultaneous with a strong male bonding principle, homosociality. Although conflicts existed between the two principles of organization, household and homosociality, they operated together at any rate until the beginning of the 19th century. The article illustrates how this cooperation worked, but also how the rise and fall of the household system in the military may be explained. Military thought, growth of state authority, a professionalization process and changed cultural norms were crucial. However, I want to emphasize the social practice of gender relations as a promoter of change: how norms and measures connected with marriage affected the military.     

Crime Statistics as Constructs: The Case of Swedish Rape Statistics

Using Swedish rape statistics as a focus, this article aims to empirically describe the way in which different factors affect official crime statistics produced at the national level. It is argued that cross-national comparisons of crime levels are extremely hazardous when based on official crime statistics, since the construction rules vary widely. International comparisons of crime levels should as a rule be confined to findings of international victim surveys. The example of rape statistics in Sweden - about three times higher when compared to other countries in the European Sourcebook - is used to explain what factors can influence statistics. Statistical, legal and substansive factors are to be taken into account. The author shows that changes in statistical routines, the legal definition of rape and changes over time all influence the statistics in a substansive way. This article indicates the great extent to which crime statistics are a construct, whose appearance is very sensitive to the rules applied in the process of construction. In order to employ statistics appropriately, a thorough knowledge of the principles guiding this process is therefore essential.     

Networks of organised black market labour in the building trade

The building industry is a sector characterised by a large number of opportunities to commit economic crime. In Sweden, the level of tax avoidance in the building trade is estimated to be substantial, and the use of black market labour extensive. This article focuses on the organised use of black market labour in the building industry, which may be described as a form of both economic and organised crime. To date only a very small number of criminological studies have examined the use of black market labour in this sector of the economy. The article focuses on two of the central roles found in the context of organised, black market labour: the “fixer” and the “criminal entrepreneur”. The fixer is an individual with expertise in the methods of economic crime. The criminal entrepreneur acts first and foremost as a link between a client and the manpower required by this client. In this paper, fixers and criminal entrepreneurs are studied on the basis of data from the Swedish Register of Suspected Offenders. The analysis shows that the networks of fixers and criminal entrepreneurs overlap one another to some extent. There are nonetheless a number of differences between the two groups and also between their respective networks. The networks of the fixers are larger than those of the criminal entrepreneurs, and the individuals that comprise the fixers’ networks are suspected in connection with much larger numbers of offences. The fixers more often commit offences together with others and also have larger numbers of suspected co-offenders than the criminal entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the criminal entrepreneurs are suspected of having maintained their ties to suspected co-offenders for longer periods of time than the fixers. The fixers appear to specialise in fraud and forgery offences, whereas motoring offences, smuggling and drug offences are more common among the criminal entrepreneurs. The networks are highly male-dominated and on balance they are comprised of much older individuals than those of traditional offenders. Many of the fixers and criminal entrepreneurs are suspected of committing offences with the same co-offender for a long period of time. Further out in the networks, co-offenders are replaced more often. Tax offences are very common in both types of network, both in those parts of the network that are close to the fixers and criminal entrepreneurs, and also in more distant parts of the networks. In the more distant parts of the networks, there is also an increase in the proportion of offences that individual network members are suspected of committing. Judging from the material examined in the current study, violent offences do not appear to be very common among either fixers or criminal entrepreneurs. The networks examined are largely comprised of individuals suspected of economic offences. These individuals are linked together with one another by means of direct and indirect contacts that produce semi-legal networks of individuals with knowledge of organised black market labour.

Immigration and crime: a time-trend analysis of self-reported crime in Sweden, 1999–2017

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the direction and rate of change in self-reported crime over time, based on immigrant status and region of origin. The study is based on eight nationally representive school surveys conducted by the National Council for Crime Prevention between 1999 and 2017, with a sample of 50,657 adolescents. Results in this study showed a decreasing trend in self-reported offending among both first and second generation immigrant youth, and also among immigrant youths from different regions of origin. The results also show that offending has declined at a faster rate among first generation immigrants by comparison with native Swedes.     

IT-related Crime – Old Crimes in a New Guise,But New Directions Too!

This article constitutes an attempt to describe the nature of IT-related crime and how it is likely to evolve in the future. By means of a number of empirical studies, the authors have attempted to estimate the prevalence of a number of different IT-related incidents and offences in Sweden during the period 1997-1998. The article shows that IT-related crime consists to a large extent of less serious offences. One might say that everyday crime has expanded into a new technological environment. Parts of the study nonetheless indicate that there are more serious IT-related offences being committed. In this regard the authors' focus is on offences related to the most valuable commodity in modern society, information. On the basis of the empirical studies, two different developmental patterns are identified; the first of these involves everything carrying on much the same as before, with no real evidence of any radical shift taking place; the second involves society going through a period of relatively comprehensive structural and technological change, which in turn is creating new and dangerous opportunity structures for crime.     

Explaining the choice between alternative insolvency regimes for troubled companies in the UK and Sweden

Over the past 20 years UK and Swedish insolvency law has moved in the direction of company rescue rather than enforcing secured creditor priority. However, both countries show a low take up rate of rescue procedures. This paper uses a cost-benefit approach to examine the choices faced by key stakeholders using the now conventional transaction cost paradigm. The paper argues that it is predominantly the ex post indirect and time costs which explain the poor take up of customised rescue procedures. In both countries the ex ante cost of delay in filing also presents a tough challenge not fully addressed by policymakers. JEL Classification K22