Charlotta Thodelius

Lethal school violence in Scandinavia: development of an incident typology and suggestions for prevention

Abstract In this paper, we address the question of lethal school violence and suggest some preventive strategies. Previous studies in the field have been dominated of cases from the U.S. or Germany, but in this paper we instead focus on lethal violence which has occurred in Scandinavia. Previous research of lethal violence and prevention against it often stresses the complexity and limitations in research. Mainly since the impossibility to profile perpetrators or make lists of warnings signs. In addition, since lethal violence are rare events, there are methodologic challenges related to studies of the phenomena. In the study, the included cases are different acts of lethal violence, occurred 1961–2016 (n = 12). In the first analysis, the aim is to construct a typology, and in the second analysis the typology is used for analysing suitable prevention strategies. The study emphasizes the relation between perpetrator, victim, school and traceable motive in the typology, and the result concludes three different types of lethal violence. The first is based on interpersonal revenge, the second institutional revenge and the third societal revenge. Two prevention strategies seem suitable: one aiming at schools organizational structure and the second to architectural decisions in the design process.

Injury events sustained in residential environments: age and physical disability as explanatory factors for differences in injury patterns in Sweden

ABSTRACT The aim is to analyze how age and physical (dis)ability jointly condition the probability of different types of injuries in residential settings, in order to identify injury countermeasures. There is a need to identify risk factors associated with injuries involving disabled people in their homes. The data include 62,674 records of unintentional injuries in the residential settings from Injury Database 2001–2015. Injuries were twice as likely to occur in residential settings, compared to other environments. Individuals with dis-abilities were more likely to be injured in their residences through falls, compared to non disabled individuals. Contusion was a more common injury type in the disabled group, while open wounds were more common in the non disabled group. Age was the most important factor for predicting fractures and the risk for fractures increased by age, while risk factors related to physical disability did not appear to play a role. The evidence is clear that people with disabilities, and older people without disabilities, would benefit from safety interventions in their home to reduce harm from falls after they have occurred. In keeping with principles to support autonomy, it is recommended that a range of passive measures be implemented to reduce injury risks.

Injury events in residential areas - risk groups and etiological factors for falling, cutting and poisoning.

Background Injury events in homes constitute a major social problem. Falling, cutting and poisoning make up 85 per cent of all injury events in residential areas. This study is based on a unique data set that includes several million cases of falling, cutting and poisoning in Sweden during the period 1990-2013 which lead to either to death, hospitalisation or to a visit to a health care provider, and a control group randomly selected from the population. Three riskgroups are given special attention in the analysis: (1) old people, (2) children, (3) persons with disabilities and or long term illnesses. Methods Multilevel regression analysis and geographical information systems, GIS. Results The results show the probability for each riskgroup to be exposed to each type of injury event, and how this probability varies with place (GIS), previous exposure, type of household, socioeconomic status and type of housing. Conclusions The project is ongoing. Our cross-sectorial group has demonstrated the importance of injury epidemiology as a guiding principle in architectural design, particularly for high-risk groups.