Deserving and undeserving victims of crime: An analysis of applications and awards made by Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund in Iceland

By Hildur Fjóla Antonsdóttir

Working paper 1/2024 (PDF).

All our NSfK Working papers (for download).

Successful PhD seminar in Copenhagen

The NSfK PhD seminar was this year hosted by Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research at Aarhus University.

The seminar was attended by 32 PhD fellows from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, who all shared an interest in criminology and criminal justice issues.

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Can we strive for justice within surveillance systems? Introducing the JUSST Project

As welfare services embrace data-driven technologies, concerns grow about how these systems impact marginalized communities through surveillance and automation. Can justice truly coexist within these structures? The JUSST Project (2024-2026), funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and hosted by OsloMet, tackles this critical question.

By comparing two groups—income support recipients and offenders under electronic monitoring—the project explores how digital surveillance in welfare services can feel punitive. JUSST aims to create frameworks that advocate for fair, community-centered technology use, ensuring welfare systems support rather than marginalize. Join us as we rethink surveillance, justice, and empowerment in the digital age.

New blog post by Marijke Roosen.

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Research Seminar 2025: 25 years into the millennium. New challenges for crime control and prevention

What are the challenges represented by new trends in crime, crime policy, and crime prevention? We are interested in contributions related to for instance organized, economic, digital, or ecological crime and the challenges these represent for control and prevention.

NSfK’s 63rd research seminar will explore Nordic research into new trends, what is happening now and what may be future challenges and opportunities.

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On Butchers and Stench: Lived Experiences of Atrocity Crimes

In every conflict, there is at least one protagonist who is nicknamed a ‘butcher’. These ‘butchers’ have shown a brutality and efficiency that surpasses morally and socially acceptable behaviour in an armed conflict or even a genocide. Some parallels can be drawn to the smell of genocide. In every case of mass atrocities, when bodies decompose, there will inevitably be a horrible stench, which adds a sensory layer to the description of cruelty and the lived experience of genocide.

New blog post by Carola Lingaas.

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Nordic network for register-based criminological
research

By Torbjørn Skardhamar

Meeting minutes 3/2024 (PDF).

All our NSfK Meeting minutes (for download).

Alternative sanctions for drug-related crimes

New research suggests that using contract care instead of prison could be a more effective way to address substance-related crimes like drunk driving.

Anna Kahlmeter’s new study explores court-imposed care orders, often referred to as “contract care”, for aggravated drink-driving and drug offences in Sweden.

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Policy Brief 2/2024 (PDF)

Responses to Hate Crime in the Nordics: Understanding Emergent Policy, Legislation and
Policing

By Rune Ellefsen.

Meeting minutes 2/2024 (PDF).

All our NSfK Meeting minutes (for download).

When life takes a turn for the worst

The premature death of a young person not only causes grief and irreversibly affects their family’s life, it also affects the sense of insecurity in societies. While we know quite a lot about lethal violence, especially from perpetrators’ perspectives, and thanks to quantitative studies, in order for us to prevent homicide in the most effective way, deeper knowledge about the victims of lethal violence is needed. This blog post argues for qualitative research and a social autopsy perspective.

New blog post by Iina Sahramäki.

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Nordic crime victimization surveys

On the initiative of Council member Anne-Julie Boesen Pedersen, representatives from all the Nordic ministries and academia gathered in Copenhagen to share experiences and discuss problems related to crime victimization surveys in the Nordic countries.

Read more about Meeting minutes 1/2024.

All our NSfK Meeting minutes (for download).

The reversed gender victimization gap among Swedish youth

Why young Swedish women report higher victimization rates than young men – changing perceptions of sexual offences and crime patterns.

New blog post by Mika Hagerlid.

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Youth street gangs in social media discourse-who is to blame?

This blog post dives into the public discourses surrounding youth street gangs, where media portrayals, social fears, and policy debates intertwine to shape our understanding of the phenomenon. The post discusses how online discussions resemble earlier moral panics about youth, and how these can come to shape policies, and influence public attitudes towards immigration, young immigrant masculinities, and crime.

New blog post by Marja Lönnroth-Olin.

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