Purpose: This paper sought to bring together police science and sport-for-development (SFD) with a scoping review of the empirical literature on at-risk youth and police relationship-building in the context of sport interventions.

Design/methodology/approach: We conducted a scoping review with a Setting, Perspective, Intervention, Comparison and Evaluation (SPICE) model to systematically examine existing studies on the involvement of police in sports-based youth development programs. A total of 1,247 records were identified, and ten empirical research studies were included in the review.

Findings: The review identifies the critical role of stakeholders, especially coaches and community leaders, in facilitating police-youth contact. Coaches often serve as boundary-spanners, building trust between police officers and at-risk youth. Police involvement in these programs is multifaceted, with officers participating as teammates, leaders or mentors. This participation helps dismantle barriers and foster positive relationships but shows that different roles are associated with different benefits and risk factors. Relatedly, the review highlights potential risks such as the hyper-criminalization of youth, emphasizing the need for program designs that promote equality and collaboration.

Originality/value: This paper provides the first significant steps toward conceptualizing the role of police within sport interventions by integrating community policing and SFD literature. We advocate for interdisciplinary collaboration between police science and SFD scholars to further develop police-youth relationships.

Purpose - This scoping review mapped the extant literature on parents with a justice-involved youth and their attitudes and perceptions toward police. The study aimed to explore two research questions: (1) How do perceptions between parent and youth correspond? and (2) What factors affect the parental perception of police? Design/methodology/approach - A total of 14 studies were identified and analyzed. The review focused on understanding the relationship between parental and youth perceptions of police, as well as identifying factors that influence parental attitudes. Findings - In short, parents' perception of police strongly corresponds to that of youths' perception of police and parents with negative views of the police significantly impact how their children perceive law enforcement. Parental perceptions were found to be influenced by demographic, interpersonal and contextual factors. Notably, police officers' communicative skills, transparency and ability to interact with parents of justice-involved youth without stigmatizing them were critical in shaping positive perceptions. Research limitations/implications - The findings are based on a geographically limited number of studies. Future research should further explore these dynamics in different sociocultural contexts and expand the sample size for broader conclusions. Practical implications - The study underscores the importance of police officers developing strong communication skills and engaging with parents in a manner that avoids stigmatization. Improved interactions between law enforcement and families are essential for supporting justice-involved youth. Originality/value - This review highlights the role of parental attitudes in shaping youth perceptions of law enforcement that may inform police training aimed at fostering cooperation with families.

Under de senaste decennierna har Sverige genomgått stora demografiska och politiska förändringar. Tillsammans har dessa inneburit att Sverige idag samtidigt är ett av Europas mest sekulariserade och mest mångreligiösa länder. Den snabba demografiska förändring Sverige har genomgått har ställt många inför nya, stora och i vissa fall skyndsamma kunskapsbehov samtidigt är forskningen om situationen delvis eftersatt. I denna rapport identifieras hur den nya situationen relaterar till det lagstadgade uppdrag som svenskt polisväsende, vård, skola och offentlig förvaltning har. Den forskning som gjorts inom dessa områden sammanfattas och de viktigaste forskningsbehoven identifieras.

Engineers face challenges when they are to manage project groups and be leaders for organisations becausesuch positions demand skills in social competence and empathy. Previous studies have shown that engineershave low degrees of social competence skills. In this study, the level of empathy as measured by the foursubscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, perspective taking, fantasy, empathic distress and empathicconcern, among engineering students was compared to students in health care profession programmes.Participants were undergraduate students at Linköping University, 365 students from four different healthcare profession programmes and 115 students from two different engineering programmes. When theempathy measures were corrected for effects of sex, engineering students from one of the programmes hadlower empathy than psychology and socialworker students on the fantasy and perspective-taking subscales.These results raise questions regarding opportunities for engineering students to develop their empathicabilities. It is important that engineering students acquire both theoretical and practical knowledge andskills regarding empathy.

The development and establishment of a Swedish translation of the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE) was investigated in a sample of 788 participants. The SEE is a self-report instrument and is used to measure empathy directed toward people from ethnic cultural groups who are different from the respondent’s own ethnocultural group. Principal components factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) provided evidence for a four-factor structure. The factors were Acceptance of Cultural Differences, Communicative Ethnocultural Em-pathy, Ethnocultural Empathic Awareness, and Intellectual Ethnocultural Empathy. The factors were moderately intercorrelated, and additional correlational analyses showed convergent validity in high correlations between the four factors and the two subscales Empathic Concern and Perspective Taking of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Possible applications of this scale in a healthcare context are discussed.

The concept of ethnocultural empathy has been put forward as a variable that could explain tolerance between individuals and groups of different ethnic and cultural background. However, it is not clear if ethnocultural em-pathy is distinct from basic empathy. In this study we investigated the association between basic empathy, as measured by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983) and ethnocultural empathy, as measured by the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (Wang et al., 2003). We also explored the question of whether a set of back-ground variables would predict the two forms of empathy. We investigated if there were different predictors of ethnocultural and basic empathy, and if the two constructs are distinct. Results showed that the two forms of empathy were correlated and that largely similar predictors were found for the two constructs. A confirmatory factor analysis failed to confirm two separate constructs. Implications of the findings for the measurement of empathy are discussed.

Although a number of theoretical frameworks have been developed in previous empathyresearch, the extent to which these frameworks consider cultural and ethnic aspects islimited. This literature study reviews the most influential frameworks of general andethnocultural empathy. The core components of ethnocultural empathy are identified aswell as factors facilitating empathy for persons from other cultures. Most notably, therealization that people in other cultures have similar worries and goals should facilitateethnocultural empathy, in both informal and professional contexts. This analysis canprovide useful insights and tools for practitioners working with patients and clients fromcultures other than their own.

In a multicultural society, ethnocultural empathy has become an important element in most health settings and development of this capacity has become a central component for health care professionals in their interactions with patients and clients. In this study, differences in basic empathy and ethnocultural empathy were explored in a sample of 365 undergraduate students at the beginning and end of four masters programs in health care ( medicine, psychology, nursing, and social work). Results showed that it was mainly psychology students in the first semester who had significantly higher general empathic skills and ethnocultural empathic skills compared to students in the other study programs. Few signs of differences between students in their first and in later semesters were obtained. The observed differences may be explained by ( a) levels of admission grades and applications requirements or (b) different cultures and expectations from the surrounding milieus in the investigated study programs.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate empathy for persons from ethnical groups different than one’s own, an ability called ethnocultural empathy. A scale measuring ethnocultural empathy was translated and validated for a Swedish context and tested in a student sample, a majority of which were healthcare students. Three studies were performed. In study I, the validity and reliability of a Swedish translation of the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE) was investigated (N=326). The purpose of study II was to investigate the association between basic empathy as measured by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983) and ethnocultural empathy as measured by the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (Wang et al., 2003). In study III, differences in basic empathy as well as in ethnocultural empathy were explored in a sample of 365 undergraduate students at the beginning and end of four Master programmes in health care education (Medicine, Psychology, Nursing and Social Work). The main results from the present thesis indicate that the central tendency, distribution of scores, intercorrelations, and factor structure in the Swedish version of SEE were well-matched and mainly similar to the American version. A significant strong correlation between basic and ethnocultural empathy was found, suggesting that the two constructs overlap substantially. The results of study III revealed that students from all programmes in health care had fairly high scores on both empathy scales. There were, however, significant differences between the study programmes. Overall, the studies show that ethnocultural empathy is a measurable construct but that it overlaps with basic empathy and further testing of the construct is needed. Implications of the findings for the measurement of empathy are discussed.

Avhandlingens övergripande syfte var att undersöka empati hos personer och grupper som har en annan etnisk bakgrund än den egna, en förmåga som kallas etnokulturell empati. Denna förmåga handlar om kunskap och acceptans av andra etniska individer och gruppers kulturella uttryck. Det amerikanska instrument som anses mäta etnokulturell empati översattes och validerades till svenska språk och förhållanden. Därefter testades instrumentet hos studenter på hälsovårdutbildningar i tre studier. I studie I undersöktes instrumentets validitet och reliabilitet i ett urval av 326 respondenter. I studie II undersöktes sambandet mellan grundempati, som anses mätas med instrumentet Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), och etnokulturell empati som anses mätas med Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE). Studie III undersökte skillnader i grundempati och etnokulturell empati hos 365 studenter inom fyra program (Läkare, psykolog, sjuksköterska och socionom) i början och i slutet av deras studier. De huvudsakliga fynden i denna avhandling visade att faktorstrukturen och inter-korrelationerna i den svenska versionen av SEE i stor utsträckning liknade den amerikanska versionen. Dock detta inte bekräftades i konformatoriska faktoranalysen (CFA). Resultatet i studie II visade på ett starkt samband mellan grundempati och etnokulturell empati, vilket tyder på att dessa två konstruktioner av empati kraftigt överlappar varandra. I studie III visade resultatet att alla studenter från hälsovårdsutbildningarna hade höga nivåer av grund- och etnokulturell empati. Emellertid fanns signifikanta skillnader mellan programmen. Psykolog- och socionomstudenter hade högre nivåer av både grund empati och etnokulturell empati. Det övergripande resultat från avhandlingen visade att det går att mäta etnokulturell empati, men den nuvarande konstruktionen överlappar med grund empati. Ytterligare studier behövs för att förbättra instrumentet.