Blog
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Free flow of freedom and crime – but not of police cooperation – in the Nordic and the Schengen areas:
The Nordic countries have many of the same crime problems. When it comes to dealing with these problems, the countries’ solutions are partly similar, but partly definitely not. Do these differences have implications for the police cooperation between these countries? How does international police cooperation across borders work, given the national regulations? A new study…
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Experiences With and Barriers to Reporting Anti-LGBTQI Hate Crimes
By Kristina Os, Rune Ellefsen and Mona Hovland Jakobsen What prevents LGBTQI individuals from reporting hate crimes to the police, and what are the experiences of those who do report? A new study uncovers the troubling gaps in trust, support, and understanding that leave many anti-LGBTI hate crimes unreported in Norway. Photo by Rob Maxwell…
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Who is a credible victim, and how can you tell?
In the courtroom, credibility is the key to justice for crime victims. Victims who establish credibility in court are more likely to win their case. In Sweden, as in several Nordic countries, the courts use ordinary citizens representing the public, lay-judges, to assess criminal cases. Our study explores the specific challenges lay-judges face in assessing…
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Unmasking stalking patterns: A journey into advanced data analysis
As a PhD candidate studying stalking victimization, I often found myself staring at mountains of data,knowing there were hidden patterns just out of reach. That all changed when I attended an advancedcourse on Latent Class Analysis (LCA) in Cologne, Germany, last spring. This experience not only sharpened my statistical skills but also opened new doors…
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Changing a neighborhood: can a crime preventive initiative make a difference?
Crime prevention efforts should be based on empirical evidence, which is why it’s important to track and evaluate their effects over time to understand long-term impact. Over a sever year period, we evaluated a property owner-led collaboration in a disadvantaged neighborhood. Using quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, we analyzed changes in fear of crime, visible…
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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…
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On Butchers and Stench: Lived Experiences of Atrocity Crimes
By Carola Lingaas In every conflict, there is at least one protagonist who is nicknamed a ‘butcher’. During World War II, there were numerous Nazi ‘butchers’, for example Klaus Barbie, the ‘Butcher of Lyon’. During the Khmer Rouge regime, Ta Mok was called the ‘Butcher of Cambodia’. The General Ratko Mladić was the ‘Butcher of…
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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…
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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.
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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.