Felipe Estrada

Welfare trends in Sweden: balancing the books for the 1990s

Welfare trends in Sweden: balancing the books for the 1990s : Journal of European Social Policy

The Inequality of Victimization Trends in Exposure to Crime among Rich and Poor

Over the past decade, western societies have witnessed an increasing divergence in living standards of different social groups. This article examines whether increasing differences in living conditions are reflected in increasing inequality of victimization. Using data from Statistics Swedens Surveys of Living Conditions (1984–2001) the study shows that exposure to crimes of theft and violence has followed different trends for poorly resourced and well-resourced groups respectively. The proportion experiencing victimization, first and foremost in the form of violence and threats but also to some extent in the form of residential burglaries, is significantly greater among the poor than among the rich. Furthermore, the difference between these two groups has become greater.

The Transformation of the Politics of Crime in High Crime Societies

This study proceeds from the understanding that the past three decades have witnessed a shift in the state response to crime across Western Europe. It focuses on two mechanisms that the research literature has identified as important for this shift in crime policy, namely crime trends and ideology. From an examination of the evidence on crime trends, it is concluded that these do not constitute a fully satisfactory explanation. Instead, the changes in the state response to crime probably arise from a clear political dynamic. There exist clear differences in the way youth crime has been viewed by the different political camps during the period 1970-99. Crime is a social problem that is primarily placed on the political agenda by conservatives when social democratic governments are in power.

Does It Cost More to Be a Female Offender? A Life-Course Study of Childhood Circumstances, Crime, Drug Abuse, and Living Conditions

In this article, we use a new and rich longitudinal data set, the Stockholm Birth Cohort Study, which allows us to follow a cohort of girls and boys until they reach 48 years of age. We study differences in the social background and adult living conditions among men and women with different experiences of involvement in crime. It is clear that the female cohort members who have been registered for crime have experienced more disadvantaged childhoods than the males registered for offending. The results also indicate that involvement in crime seems to cost more for females, in terms of social exclusion.

Juvenile Crime Trends in Postwar Europe

In the literature, two models - routine activity and social control - are most often used in attempts to account for a continuous upward trend in the number of juvenile offenders during the post-war period. In Sweden, contrary to what we might expect given these models, the number of juvenile offenders has been stable, and may even have decreased, over the last 25 years. This article will present an analysis of juvenile crime trends in West European countries during the post-war period (1950-1995). A sensible way to begin a comparative study is to take advantage of the analyses already carried out by researchers in the relevant countries. Besides the official crime statistics this study also uses alternative statistics, that is, self-report studies and victim surveys. An obvious advantage with these surveys is that they are independent of the relevant countrys judicial system and official statistics. The availability of data played an important part in the choice of countries to be included. In addition, contacts were established with researchers and research centres in most countries covered by the study.

Established or excluded? A longitudinal study of criminality, work and family formation

In this article we explore the longer-term implications of criminality. We look at different groups in a birth cohort defined on the basis of their level of involvement in crime. To what extent is juvenile and adult crime related to social exclusion in mid-life? We study differences in outcomes related to work and family, and whether these differences tend to grow or diminish over time. We employ a new longitudinal data set, The Stockholm Birth Cohort Study, which provides rich and unique life-course data from birth to age 48 for 14,294 girls and boys. Our results show that criminal involvement in adulthood has a negative long-term impact on the individual’s life course and career opportunities, even after having controlled for childhood conditions and drug abuse.

Risky Neighbourhood or Individuals at Risk? The Significance of Neighbourhood Conditions for Violent Victimization in Residential Areas1

The objective of this study is to examine the social determinants of violent victimization, with the principal focus being directed at the significance of neighbourhood conditions. By combining data from victim surveys with information on the neighbourhoods in which the survey respondents live, we have been able to study both the individual and household characteristics, and also the factors specific to different neighbourhoods that are associated with violent victimization. What we are able to show is that the violence that occurs in the residential neighbourhood constitutes only a small fraction of the violent incidents to which people are exposed. Further, the violence that occurs within the neighbourhood takes place to a large extent within the victims home. This suggests that exposure to violence is associated with neighbourhood conditions only to a limited extent. More detailed analyses of the violence that does occur within the neighbourhood show no effects of neighbourhood conditions when controls are included for individual and household characteristics. The conclusion, therefore, is that we are unable to find any clear neighbourhood effects in relation to violent victimization. The differences that we initially note between different types of neighbourhood in the proportions reporting exposure to violence are too a large degree the result of selection processes. These do not, however, in themselves increase the risk for violent victimization. 1. We would like to thank David Shannon, Department of Criminology, University of Stockholm for his translation of the text.

Segregation and victimization Neighbourhood resources, individual risk factors and exposure to property crime

As a means of improving our understanding of the significance of the residential neighbourhood, we have examined exposure to property crime, studying the extent to which differences in the risk of exposure to crime are related on the one hand to individual and household characteristics and on the other to neighbourhood conditions and differences in where people live. The data are drawn from interview surveys of living conditions, which also include a number of questions relating to criminal victimization. These survey data have been combined with register data relating to residential neighbourhoods. The focus is directed at different districts in urban areas, grouped on the basis of accumulated resource deficiencies.

Offending, drug abuse and life chances—a longitudinal study of a Stockholm birth cohort

There are many factors, both empirical and theoretical, which indicate that drug abuse can play an important role in explaining the links between criminality and life chances when viewed from a life-course perspective. In this article, we examine the links between crime and drug abuse and social inclusion and exclusion in adult life, and look at whether there are gender-specific patterns in these regards. The Stockholm Birth Cohort database allows us to follow a birth cohort born in 1953 to age 56. The results show that drug abuse is central both to processes of continuity in and desistance from crime and to life chances in adulthood. For the adult outcomes that relate to work and health, we also note a tendency towards polarization; the size of both the relative and the absolute differences between the comparison group and offenders with registered drug abuse increases over time. The same general pattern can be seen for males and females.

Keeping the Balance Between Humanism and Penal Punitivism: Recent Trends in Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice in Sweden

Geographically Sweden is one of the margin members of the European Union. Sweden is also rather sparsely populated with a total population of 9 millions. During the last decades every cohort of children/juveniles consist of approximately 100,000. Since the age of legal responsibility in Sweden is 15 years and special legislation still applies for juveniles until they reach 21 years, the juvenile population could be said to consist of around 600,000. It is a well-established fact that the number of young people who have been reported for committing a crime has increased dramatically since World War II. This is not unique to Sweden and is often the same elsewhere in Europe (Estrada, 1999a). It is not unusual to see this change as continuous, that young people are becoming “worse and worse”. An attitude like this obviously affects the measures that are involved in the development of juvenile crime. This report will present the measures against juvenile crime from a criminal (justice) policy perspective and highlight how this policy has changed over the past three decades. The report begins with a general background describing the history of the Swedish juvenile justice system. Thereafter the trends in juvenile delinquency1 are analysed and the responses to crimes that are taken by the Swedish juvenile system are described in more detail. Finally we discuss how the current trends can be understood.