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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Within or without: In which system should juvenile offenders be handled?

Unclear boundaries between punishment and rehabilitation when it comes to juvenile offenders can lead to increasing legal uncertainty for the youth. In the midst of this we find the Youth Crime Boards, not formally a criminal court but tangibly close to it, where disparate interests must be accommodated within the same framework.

New blog post by Andreas Anderberg.

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Empowering Youth Through Bystander Intervention: A Promising Strategy Against Sexual Assault

In the fight against sexual assault, bystander intervention is emerging as a crucial strategy, empowering young people to act when witnessing potential harassment or assault. But do young people even witness risky situations, and if they do, how and why do they intervene?

New blog post by Terese Hartmann.

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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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The new normal? When understaffed prisons becomes the rule rather than the exception

Norwegian prisons have been suffering from a long-term budget and staffing ‘crisis’; the effects of which we observed first-hand during fieldwork on the PriSUD and PRISONHEALTH projects in 2021. We question whether this crisis has become the new normal, and discuss the consequences of said cuts on dynamic security and rehabilitation.

New blog post by Rose E. Boyle and Pernille Nyvoll.

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The Historical Criminal Statistics of the Nordic Countries 1810–2022 is launched

At the NSfK research seminar in Skåne, historical criminologist Miikka Vuorela unveiled a unique web-based statistical database with Nordic crime data going back more than 200 years.

‘The Historical Criminal Statistics of the Nordic Countries 1810– 2022’ is a data collection project that is in its current final phase and funded by the Nordic Research Council for Criminology.

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