The Stockholm Life-Course Project

Since February 2010, the longitudinal research study The Stockholm Life Course Project: Life-Courses and Crime In the Swedish Welfare State Through Half a Century is conducted at the Department of Criminology. The project consists of two research blocks, a quantitative and a qualitative, and is a follow-up study of three existing research populations. The Stockholm Life Course Project is a nearly unique project, conducted with the purpose of studying the life courses of individuals with and without delinquent background. The main purpose of the project is to explore and understand the life course processes surrounding onset, persistence, desistance and intermittency of offending. Specifically, the project is focused around five themes: 1) The processes, factors, events and turning points through the life course, which are of importance for understanding the individual’s criminal career. 2) The importance of different welfare structures for life courses processes of criminal offending and other norm-breaking behavior. 3) The relationship between physical/mental health and criminal offending, as well as other norm-breaking behavior across the life course. 4) The “Social Heritage”, in the form of horizontal and vertical diffusion of criminal offending and other norm-breaking behavior. 5) The possibilities and limitations in predicting future offending and other norm-breaking behavior. The populations in The Stockholm Life Course Project will here be called the Clientele Boys, the Skå Boys and the SiS Youth. The Clientele Boys (b. 1943-1951) The population consists of four groups: 1) 192 delinquent boys with registered delinquent background prior to age 15 2) 95 matched controls (corresponding to every second delinquent boy), without registered delinquency prior to age 15 3) 96 “shadows” to the matched delinquent boys, and 4) 96 “shadows” to the matched controls. The 287 boys that make up group 1 and 2 went through extensive examinations during the 1960s, within the frame of the 1956 Clientele Study of Juvenile Law-breakers. The study included psychological tests, a medical examination, psychiatric interviews, sociological interviews, interviews with the boy’s parents and teachers, and also the collection of official data on the boy and his family. This group was followed-up at age 18, and also during the 1980s. During the 1980s follow-up, extensive official data were collected on the men. 199 of the original 287 boys were also interviewed. The project have access to the audio recordings of these interviews. The boys in group 3 and 4, the “shadows”, are matched on the same variables as the controls in group 2. The two “shadow” groups, however, are only followed through official data. The original reason for this, was the wish to account for any “treatment effects” in the original study design. The Skå Boys (b. 1941-1954) This population consists of 322 boys - 100 of them were admitted to treatment due to “antisocial problems” at the Skå institution. The remaining 222 boys make up a representative sample of boys born in Stockholm, around the same time as the Skå boys. The SiS Youth (b. 1969-1974) The SiS Youth consists of 420 individuals (298 boys, 122 girls). During their teens, 267 of these individuals were admitted to special youth care homes in Stockholm, due to delinquency, drug use and/or other social problems. The remaining 153 individuals, also with a history of offending, drug-use, etc., were used as a control group. All 420 individuals were followed-up with the help of official data in the middle of the 1990s, roughly at the age of 25. Eighty individuals in the treatment group and 53 in the control group were interviewed during this follow-up. In the present follow-up, we use both quantitative and qualitative research methods (official register data, and life history interviews). For the quantitative branch of the project, data has been collected from Statistics Sweden, The National Board of Health and Welfare, The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, The Military Archives of Sweden, and The Swedish Prison and Probation Service. To study the possible importance of the social heritage, we have also collected data on the individuals’ parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, siblings’ children, and siblings’ grandchildren. The qualitative branch of the project consists of life history interviews with the individuals who have been interviewed in earlier follow-ups (the Clientele boys and the SiS Youth). The interviews conducted during 2010/11 have the form of life history interviews. This means that we, with the help of an interview guide, ask questions and explore different areas of the individuals’ life courses, where we are interested in understanding how the interview participants relate the past to the present and the future. The interviews cover a range of topics including living arrangements, education and school experiences, employment history, health, social relations, experiences of crime, drug-use, victimization and the criminal justice system. Up until November 2011, we have conducted roughly 80 interviews, 27 with the Clientele boys and 57 with the SiS Youth. The interviews have lasted around 90 minutes. The main bulk of the interviews have been conducted with two interviewers, some with only one. The interviews have been conducted at the university, the interview participants’ work places, libraries, coffee houses or in the interview participant’s home. Purpose: The main purpose of the project is to explore and understand the life course processes surrounding onset, persistence, desistance and intermittency of offending.Since February 2010, the longitudinal research study The Stockholm Life Course Project: Life-Courses and Crime In the Swedish Welfare State Through Half a Century is conducted at the Department of Criminology. The project consists of two research blocks, a quantitative and a qualitative, and is a follow-up study of three existing research populations. The Stockholm Life Course Project is a nearly unique project, conducted with the purpose of studying the life courses of individuals with and without delinquent background. The main purpose of the project is to explore and understand the life course processes surrounding onset, persistence, desistance and intermittency of offending. Specifically, the project is focused around five themes: 1) The processes, factors, events and turning points through the life course, which are of importance for understanding the individual’s criminal career. 2) The importance of different welfare structures for life courses processes of criminal offending and other norm-breaking behavior. 3) The relationship between physical/mental health and criminal offending, as well as other norm-breaking behavior across the life course. 4) The “Social Heritage”, in the form of horizontal and vertical diffusion of criminal offending and other norm-breaking behavior. 5) The possibilities and limitations in predicting future offending and other norm-breaking behavior. The populations in The Stockholm Life Course Project will here be called the Clientele Boys, the Skå Boys and the SiS Youth. The Clientele Boys (b. 1943-1951) The population consists of four groups: 1) 192 delinquent boys with registered delinquent background prior to age 15 2) 95 matched controls (corresponding to every second delinquent boy), without registered delinquency prior to age 15 3) 96 “shadows” to the matched delinquent boys, and 4) 96 “shadows” to the matched controls. The 287 boys that make up group 1 and 2 went through extensive examinations during the 1960s, within the frame of the 1956 Clientele Study of Juvenile Law-breakers. The study included psychological tests, a medical examination, psychiatric interviews, sociological interviews, interviews with the boy’s parents and teachers, and also the collection of official data on the boy and his family. This group was followed-up at age 18, and also during the 1980s. During the 1980s follow-up, extensive official data were collected on the men. 199 of the original 287 boys were also interviewed. The project have access to the audio recordings of these interviews. The boys in group 3 and 4, the “shadows”, are matched on the same variables as the controls in group 2. The two “shadow” groups, however, are only followed through official data. The original reason for this, was the wish to account for any “treatment effects” in the original study design. The Skå Boys (b. 1941-1954) This population consists of 322 boys - 100 of them were admitted to treatment due to “antisocial problems” at the Skå institution. The remaining 222 boys make up a representative sample of boys born in Stockholm, around the same time as the Skå boys. The SiS Youth (b. 1969-1974) The SiS Youth consists of 420 individuals (298 boys, 122 girls). During their teens, 267 of these individuals were admitted to special youth care homes in Stockholm, due to delinquency, drug use and/or other social problems. The remaining 153 individuals, also with a history of offending, drug-use, etc., were used as a control group. All 420 individuals were followed-up with the help of official data in the middle of the 1990s, roughly at the age of 25. Eighty individuals in the treatment group and 53 in the control group were interviewed during this follow-up. In the present follow-up, we use both quantitative and qualitative research methods (official register data, and life history interviews). For the quantitative branch of the project, data has been collected from Statistics Sweden, The National Board of Health and Welfare, The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, The Military Archives of Sweden, and The Swedish Prison and Probation Service. To study the possible importance of the social heritage, we have also collected data on the individuals’ parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, siblings’ children, and siblings’ grandchildren. The qualitative branch of the project consists of life history interviews with the individuals who have been interviewed in earlier follow-ups (the Clientele boys and the SiS Youth). The interviews conducted during 2010/11 have the form of life history interviews. This means that we, with the help of an interview guide, ask questions and explore different areas of the individuals’ life courses, where we are interested in understanding how the interview participants relate the past to the present and the future. The interviews cover a range of topics including living arrangements, education and school experiences, employment history, health, social relations, experiences of crime, drug-use, victimization and the criminal justice system. Up until November 2011, we have conducted roughly 80 interviews, 27 with the Clientele boys and 57 with the SiS Youth. The interviews have lasted around 90 minutes. The main bulk of the interviews have been conducted with two interviewers, some with only one. The interviews have been conducted at the university, the interview participants’ work places, libraries, coffee houses or in the interview participant’s home. Syfte: Huvudsyftet med projektet är att utforska och skapa förståelse för de livsinriktningsprocesser som kan relateras till olika aspekter av ett brott

Warto być kryminologiem

Professor Jerzy Sarnecki was born in 1947 in Warsaw, Poland. Sarnecki came to Sweden in 1968, where he earned a PhD in sociology at Stockholm University. His all scientifc path is connected with criminology Professor Jerzy Sarnecki is a regular commentator in media on the subject of crime. At the request of Monika Kotowska and Piotr Chlebowicz, he shared with them reflections on the problems of contemporary science, crime and his professional path.Profesor Jerzy Sarnecki (ur. 7 lipca 1947 r.), socjolog i kryminolog, profesor na Uniwersytecie w Sztokholmie. Urodzony w Warszawie, w rodzinie polskich Żydów. Po marcu 1968 r. opuścił Polskę. Wyjechał do Szwecji, gdzie skończył socjologie a następnie uzyskał tytuł doktora na Uniwersytecie w Sztokholmie. W latach 1986-93 pracował w Szwedzkiej Radzie Narodowej ds. Zapobiegania Przestępczości. Profesor Jerzy Sarnecki jest również inicjatorem międzynarodowej nagrody kryminologicznej, zwanej często Noblem kryminologów. Jest ona corocznie przyznawana podczas uroczystej ceremonii w ratuszu sztokholmskim. Jej zwycięzca i autor wyróżniających się badań lub praktyk, które pozwalają na ograniczanie przestępczości i promowanie praw człowieka, otrzymuje milion koron. Badania naukowe profesora Jerzego Sarneckiego dotyczyły głównie problematyki przestępczości wśród młodzieży w Szwecji, polityki kryminalnej, wykorzystania teorii sieci i metodologii w badaniu przestępczości. Zrealizował również długoterminowy projekt badawczy zatytułowany:” The Stockholm Life Course Project: Life-Courses and Crime In the Swedish Welfare State Through Half a Century”. Jest również Autorem podręczników z zakresu kryminologii. Profesor Jerzy Sarnecki jest też jednym z bohaterów książki ‚’Wygnani do raju. Szwedzki azyl’’ Krystyny Naszkowskiej ukazała się w 2016 r. nakładem Wydawnictwa Agora

Crime as a Price of Inequality? : The Delinquency Gap between Children of Immigrants and Children of Native Swedes

We examine the gap in registered crime between the children of immigrants and the children of native Swedes. Our study is the first in Sweden to address the role of family and environmental background in creating the gap in recorded crimes. Lack of resources within the family and/or in the broader social environment, particularly in neighborhoods and schools, generates higher risks for criminal activity in children, and if the children of immigrants to a larger extent are underprivileged in those resources, a gap in crime may occur. In the empirical analyses we follow all individuals who completed compulsory schooling during the period 1990 to 1993 in the Stockholm Metropolitan area (N=66,330), and we analyze how background factors related to the family of origin and neighborhood segregation during adolescence influence the gap in recorded crimes, which are measured in 2005. For males, we are generally able to explain between half and three-quarters of this gap in crime by parental socioeconomic resources and neighborhood segregation. For females, we can explain even more, sometimes the entire gap. Resources in the family of origin appear to be the strongest mediator. In addition, the residual differences are virtually unrelated to immigrants’ country of origin, indicating that ‘culture’ or other shared context-of-exit factors matter very little in generating the gap

Crime as a Price of Inequality? The Delinquency Gap between Children of Immigrants and Children of Native Swedes

We examine the gap in registered crime between the children of immigrants and the children of native Swedes. Our study is the first in Sweden to address the role of family and environmental background in creating the gap in recorded crimes. Lack of resources within the family and/or in the broader social environment, particularly in neighborhoods and schools, generates higher risks for criminal activity in children, and if the children of immigrants to a larger extent are underprivileged in those resources, a gap in crime may occur. In the empirical analyses we follow all individuals who completed compulsory schooling during the period 1990 to 1993 in the Stockholm Metropolitan area (N=66,330), and we analyze how background factors related to the family of origin and neighborhood segregation during adolescence influence the gap in recorded crimes, which are measured in 2005. For males, we are generally able to explain between half and three-quarters of this gap in crime by parental socioeconomic resources and neighborhood segregation. For females, we can explain even more, sometimes the entire gap. Resources in the family of origin appear to be the strongest mediator. In addition, the residual differences are virtually unrelated to immigrants’ country of origin, indicating that ‘culture’ or other shared context-of-exit factors matter very little in generating the gap.crime; inequality; children of immigrants

The Stockholm life-course project: investigating offending and non-lethal severe violent victimization

Much is known about the patterning of offending throughout life, but less about the patterning of victimization. In this study, we used data from the Stockholm Life-Course Project (SLCP), a longitudinal study that includes measures of childhood problem behaviour. We analysed offending (criminal conviction and police suspicion), inpatient hospitalization and outpatient care for violent victimization. We replicated the well-established age-crime curve amongst SLCP study members. We found that hospitalization for severe violent victimization was most likely to occur between 20 and 40 years of age. We additionally considered how childhood problem behaviour impacted overall risk and life-course patterning of offending and victimization. Childhood problem behaviour was associated with a greater risk of criminal conviction. But childhood problem behaviour showed inconsistent associations with risk for police suspicion. Childhood problem behaviour was generally associated with greater involvement in crime up to middle adulthood. Childhood problem behaviour was generally associated with a greater risk of victimization. However, we were limited in our ability to estimate the effect of childhood problem behaviour on life-course patterning of victimization due to the rarity of victimization. These results imply a need for larger studies on violent victimization and greater nuance in our understanding of childhood risks and their life-long outcomes

Women in violent extremism in Sweden

The report analyses women in violent extremism based on contemporary data for Sweden. Statistics are presented across various demographic and criminal indicators for violent far-left, far-right and Islamic extremistm, compared to same-sex siblings, to men in the same violent extremist milieus and to women in other antagonistic milieus. There are both similarities and differences between groups. Women in violent Islamic extremism have the weakest labor market attachment and the highest social welfare uptake. Women in violent far-right extremism have the lowest levels of education. The comparison between women in violent extremism and their biological sisters suggests a link between crime, social problems and extremism. When controlling for family background, women associated with violent extremism seem to have more extensive problems than their sisters without such (known) connections