The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention: a Short Presentation

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet, BRÅ) is a centre for research and development work within the justice system and is to provide assistance to the agencies of the criminal justice system in improving their knowledge and developing their methods to combat and to prevent crime.

In this article a summary of the operations of the Council – with a focus on the year 2004 – is presented. It is shown that a great number of evaluation projects have been conducted (e.g. of electronic monitoring of offenders). Another way in which the Council can contribute is working to develop various instruments that can be used to measure the effects of different parts of the criminal justice system. As an example, a routine measure of repeat victimization at the regional and local level for different crime types, is being developed.

In order to maintain a national centre of expertise in the broad area of economic and organized crime, a special secretariat has been established. Its focus is directed at the area of prevention, ranging from strategies to methods. Finally, the Council has the responsibility to support local crime prevention work and mediation at the local level.

The article also points out some challenges for the future.     

国际合作--打击跨国有组织犯罪的基石

随着经济全球化、全球信息化的快速发展 ,有组织犯罪活动日益猖獗 ,并已成为全球关注的问题。从世界范围来看 ,不仅对什么是有组织犯罪及其范围引起了广泛的讨论 ,而且从立法和司法的角度对有组织犯罪进行了大量的对策研究 ,特别是从国际合作层面上加强刑法的一体化 ,共同打击跨国有组织犯罪越来越引起人们的关注。就我国而言 ,无论在立法上还是司法上尚存很大缺陷 ,需要进一步加以完善。为促进对这一问题的深入探讨 ,特请我国著名刑法学家、刑法学泰斗马克昌先生主持并组织了本组稿件     

有组织犯罪--全球关注的问题

随着经济全球化、全球信息化的快速发展 ,有组织犯罪活动日益猖獗 ,并已成为全球关注的问题。从世界范围来看 ,不仅对什么是有组织犯罪及其范围引起了广泛的讨论 ,而且从立法和司法的角度对有组织犯罪进行了大量的对策研究 ,特别是从国际合作层面上加强刑法的一体化 ,共同打击跨国有组织犯罪越来越引起人们的关注。就我国而言 ,无论在立法上还是司法上尚存很大缺陷 ,需要进一步加以完善。为促进对这一问题的深入探讨 ,特请我国著名刑法学家、刑法学泰斗马克昌先生主持并组织了本组稿件     

论有组织犯罪的社会对策

随着经济全球化、全球信息化的快速发展 ,有组织犯罪活动日益猖獗 ,并已成为全球关注的问题。从世界范围来看 ,不仅对什么是有组织犯罪及其范围引起了广泛的讨论 ,而且从立法和司法的角度对有组织犯罪进行了大量的对策研究 ,特别是从国际合作层面上加强刑法的一体化 ,共同打击跨国有组织犯罪越来越引起人们的关注。就我国而言 ,无论在立法上还是司法上尚存很大缺陷 ,需要进一步加以完善。为促进对这一问题的深入探讨 ,特请我国著名刑法学家、刑法学泰斗马克昌先生主持并组织了本组稿件     

Constructing Crime against the Elderly in Swedish Crime Prevention Campaigns

The study investigates how crime prevention activities frame the problem of crime against the elderly, regarding character, causes, effects and solutions. Data was collected through participant observations, interviews and analysis of a film produced by a local crime prevention council in Sweden. It is concluded that crime prevention for seniors produces complex and contradicting images of the problem. In situational crime prevention seniors are warned to look out for strangers stalking them or trying to access their homes. Statements that victimization is uncommon among the old are combined with warnings that invoke images of mysterious ever-present perpetrators. In social crime prevention, where causes and interventions of crime are discussed, crime prevention officers link the problem to established social problems such as drug abuse and juvenile delinquency. This way of framing the problem is typical for a Swedish Social Democratic perspective, where lack of community and integration are defined as causes of social problems. It is concluded that warnings to look out for strangers who ask for help may be at odds with this striving towards community.     

Understanding Victim Support as Crime Prevention Work: The Construction of Young Victims and Villains in the Dominant Crime Victim Discourse in Sweden

Starting from the observation that a new victim category has emerged in the form of the ‘young crime victim’, this article explores the notion of support to young crime victims as crime prevention work, considering it as an important constituent of the dominant crime victim discourse among support professionals. In the context of the support work, the (young) ‘victim’ and the (young) ‘villain’ provide mutually necessary counterparts constructed in relation to each other. Corresponding to this division, two approaches in criminal and crime prevention policy and practice are then analysed using Garland's notions of ‘the criminology of the self’ and ‘the criminology of the other’. The first of these strategies is generally associated with rehabilitative measures (with the resulting normalization of the crime, its victims, and villains), while in the second punitive measures remain the norm (with the crime, its victims, and villains becoming ‘Otherized’). Yet, as shown within the context of rehabilitation organized as support to young crime victims, both of these (at first glance mutually contradictory) discourses are drawn upon and operationalized by the professional support staff constructing images of young victims and villains in their daily work. Help-seeking youths resistant to identifying as victims remain represented as (possible future) villains.     

Evidence-Based Approaches to Crime Prevention in Developing Countries

The purpose of this paper is to review the present state of the evidence base on the effectiveness of crime prevention programmes and practices in developing countries and to consider the prospects for its improvement. The paper summarises the findings from a scoping review of the literature and develops some suggestions about how the void it finds might be filled. A key focus is on the quality of the methodology used in the research from which the findings are drawn. Against this background the paper considers the degree to which findings about effectiveness, even where they are derived from high quality research on the impact of a criminal justice intervention, are likely to be generalisable from the location of an experiment or pilot to other settings or countries. Building an evidence based on the effectiveness of crime prevention or crime reduction interventions for developing countries would clearly be a major task. Many kinds of political, social, economic and other forces, which vary from country to country, may mediate the impact of criminal justice interventions. The result may be that what works well in one country may not work at all well elsewhere for all kinds of reasons. The principal challenge in creating an evidence base is to develop inclusion criteria when making cross-country comparisons that strike an appropriate balance between the costs and benefits of greater methodological rigour and generalisation.     

How Situational Crime Prevention Contributes to Social Welfare

Situational crime prevention has been met with considerable scepticism from academic criminologists primarily for its indifference to social welfare. It has been seen as contributing to a law-and-order agenda with its focus on making public places secure for business and as supplanting social welfare policies as means of responding to crime. But situational crime prevention contributes more to social welfare than sceptics allow and its advocates (may) believe. Situational crime prevention has enjoyed its fullest and robust expression, not in the free-market, neo-liberal environment of America, but within the leading welfare states of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. This essay considers the politics of the situational approach, the alleged benefits of social crime prevention, criminalisation of social policy, unplanned social welfare benefits, assumptions about the role of business, and concerns about privacy, surveillance and control. The discussion centres on the European experience: the UK, France, The Netherlands and the Nordic countries.

Preventive Policing and Security Plans: The Reception of New Crime Prevention Strategies in Three Finnish Cities

In Western countries today, security is seen predominantly as a problem of public places. This has given rise to a growing demand for new strategies of governing public places, the most popular of which are crime prevention, community policing (e.g., zero tolerance) and partnership. Their aim is to encourage the public sector, voluntary organizations and market actors to work more closely with the police in a local effort to create and maintain a safe living environment. This article looks at what kind of reception the new methods of governing public places have received in three Finnish cities (Helsinki, Lappeenranta, and Tampere) by reviewing their newly formulated security plans and programmes. The analysis of this document material makes use of the concept of moral regulation. The analysis focuses on the kind of local security problems that are identified in these security plans as targets of moral regulation; what kinds of techniques they propose for addressing and resolving these problems; and in what kind of crime prevention role they position the subjects of moral regulation (police officers and police partners) and the objects of moral regulation. The analysis shows that Helsinki aims to regulate the problems occurring in public places by emphasizing a neo­liberal ethos. Lappeenranta, on the other hand, walks a tight­rope in its security plan between communitarian and welfare state ambitions. Tampere, for its part, responds to the security threat in public places by adopting a neo­leftist stance (cf. the Third Way).     

Crime and Reactions to Crime in Scandinavia

This short overview of available statistical data on crime and penal systems in Scandinavia indicates that the level of traditional forms of crime in Scandinavia is on a par with or lower than that found in many other European countries. As elsewhere in western Europe, Scandinavia experienced a substantial increase in crime rates during the post‐war period—indicating that these recorded increases may have common structural roots. The 1990s witnessed a stabilization of theft rates, albeit at a high level. Increasing equality between women and men may have contributed to an increase in the reporting of violent and sexual offences against women (and children), making these offences more visible. The system of formal control in the Scandinavian countries is characterized by relatively low police density; a clear‐up rate that has declined; above‐average conviction rates; the imposition of fines in a high proportion of criminal cases; and relatively low prison populations. The implications for crime policies are discussed.     

试论刑事一体化模式下的犯罪预防

犯罪预防是刑法学尤其是犯罪学中的一项重要命题,对犯罪预防的研究一直都为刑法学家和犯罪学家所重视。而且,开展犯罪预防工作也是刑事立法和司法活动中的重要环节。要行之有效地进行犯罪预防,最重要的莫过于犯罪预防体系的建立。刑事一体化主要是一种认识和处理犯罪和刑罚问题的刑事法研究思路,这种思路付诸于司法实践就要求综合运用刑事法所涵盖的诸多学科知识全方位、多角度地对犯罪和刑罚做出整体的透视,以期获得全面科学的认识,其中就必然包含了犯罪预防方面的内容。     

Italian Organised Crime: Mafia Associations and Criminal Enterprises

The article reviews the different forms of organised crime in Italy. To begin with, it focuses on the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, Italy's two largest and most powerful mafia associations. With their centuries-old histories, articulated structures, sophisticated ritual and symbolic apparatuses and claim to exercise a political dominion, these associations have few parallels in the world of organised crime. In its second section, the article considers other groups and networks that are--with varying degrees of justification--also routinely described as organised crime: these range from the Neapolitan camorra to Apulian organised crime and the so-called new 'foreign mafie' and other criminal entrepreneurs. Whereas the new Italian and foreign players are likely to expand their activities on Italy's illegal markets, the future of Cosa Nostra and the 'Ndrangheta is more uncertain and largely depends on the decisions made by the public administrations.     

Prevention,Crime Control or Cash? Public Preferences Towards Criminal Justice Spending Priorities

We propose and test a new methodology to assess the public’s criminal justice spending priorities. Respondents are asked to trade‐off alternative crime prevention and control policies as well as a potential tax rebate. In a nationally representative sample, we found overwhelming support for increased spending on youth prevention, drug treatment for nonviolent offenders, and police. However, the median respondent would not allocate any new money to building more prisons and would not request a tax rebate if the money were spent on youth prevention, drug treatment, or police. At the margin, we estimate the public would receive $3.07 in perceived value by spending $1.00 on youth prevention; $1.86 in value for every dollar spent on drug treatment; and $1.76 for a dollar spent on police. However, the public would not spend more on prisons, deriving only 71 cents in value for every tax dollar spent.     

我国青少年犯罪及其防治探讨

本文认为由于对青少年犯罪问题没有足够重视,致使青少年教育工作存在不少问题:青少年违法犯罪增多,且呈低龄化、团伙化、暴力化,手段残忍,社会危害大。在此,笔者探讨了青少年犯罪率上升的原因,并提出了防治犯罪的几点对策。     

论我国经济犯罪的刑事政策

科学的经济犯罪刑事政策是有效应对当前经济犯罪高发态势的关键,我国经济犯罪刑事政策在总体上呈现"厉而不严"的特点,过于依赖刑罚的作用。对经济犯罪刑事政策的调整应坚持广义的刑事政策观,以科学发展和社会和谐的社会经济政策作为经济犯罪刑事政策的基础,在立法上犯罪化和非犯罪化并重并注重刑罚的轻缓化,在司法上抓大放小。     

"犯罪治理"作为刑事诉讼目的的若干思考

学界的主流观点以及现行立法对我国刑事诉讼目的皆持“二元论”的立场,即一方面为惩罚犯罪,一方面为保障人权,并没有把“犯罪治理”作为刑事诉讼的一个目标。从刑事政策的视角来看,这样的程序设计并不妥当。未来的刑事诉讼法修改,应该考虑赋予诉讼程序在治理犯罪方面的制度功能。     

犯罪黑数及其控制

犯罪黑数是指由于各种原因而没有记载在刑事统计中的具体犯罪数据 ,也就是刑事统计犯罪个数与实际发生的犯罪数之差。犯罪黑数存在的原因相当复杂 ,而要控制这一现象 ,也需要从其产生的社会原因、法律原因以及主体因素等方面加以考虑。