An aim of committing terror is to instill fear in the population. This article explores to what extent Swedish citizens were cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally affected by the 2017 terrorist attack in Stockholm and how the citizens perceived that the authorities handled the situation. The study is based on data from a survey with 1996 participants, consisting of a random sample of people living in Sweden, aged 18-79 years. Our results show that exposure to terrorist acts has a significant negative psychological impact on the population in general and on those who do not feel part of Swedish society in particular. The attack’s negative effect was despite the fact that the vast majority of respondents felt that society had handled the attack well and almost half of the respondents stated that they had gained increased confidence in the authorities.

This essay aims to show how to integrate archaeological techniques, methods, and principles into practical policework at an outdoor crime scene.“The pig project” is an attempt by me and others to teach crime scene investigators forensic archaeology. By showing how the police authority and the traceability (chain of custody/CoC) gains from using forensic archaeology in practical policework at an outdoor crime scene the author attempts to concretize how this may be done by using “The pig Project” as an example.

European governments have increasingly relied on voluntary sport clubs (VSCs) to address social issues, particularly refugees’ social inclusion. Contemporarily, millions of Ukrainian refugees have fled to neighbouring countries; VSCs are thus more relevant than ever. This review synthesised the research on VSCs’ enabling and constraining features regarding refugees’ social inclusion. The review was conceptualised according to Bronfenbrenner’s Process-Person-Context-Time framework and DeLuca’s spectrum of social inclusion. The key findings indicate that: (i) initiatives are propelled by individuals with pre-existing capital and a commitment to social justice; (ii) the interaction between the organisational culture of VSCs and these individuals plays a crucial role in achieving social inclusion; (iii) VSCs often overlook refugees’ strengths; and (iv) cross-sectoral collaborations prove beneficial for VSCs. In summary, to effectively address refugees’ social inclusion, VSCs need support, resources, intercultural education, and exposure to nuanced notions of social inclusion.

Strong political neoliberal currents in Sweden are directing attention toward communities’ responsibility to address local issues, particularly in disadvantaged areas. In parallel, community sports clubs in Sweden have gained strong traction as being sites where social issues can be addressed. In Swedish disadvantaged areas, where infrastructure is of poor quality, these clubs can be an important addition to statutory interventions, but they need to be further explored in terms of strategic pathways and conditions. Community sports have only recently been conceptualized with Chaskin’s capacity-building concept. In this paper, I seek to further stimulate this line of inquiry. By using material from two interrelated projects with informants in the sports movement, I show how sports clubs use multiple strategies according to three of Chaskin’s proposed strategies: leadership development, organizational development, and inter-organizational collaboration. By outlining an empirically dense illustration, this paper contributes to the research on sports clubs and their role in the community and provides suggestions on how strategical assessments must include how associations develop strategies online.

This review examines the distinct treatment of millions of displaced Ukrainians amidst the ongoing conflict, compared to previous refugee groups in Europe, presenting a synthesis of research encompassing traditional and grey literature. Evaluating resettlement processes, the analysis underscores the unique factors shaping Ukrainian refugees' reception, shedding light on disparities compared to other refugee groups. Cultural perceptions, vulnerability, demographics and the framing of Russia as a common adversary influence responses from individuals, organizations and nations in unprecedented ways in Western societies. The discussion critically dissects these findings, proposing the concept of ‘promising victimhood’ for a nuanced understanding of differential treatment, while urging further theoretical development. This concise systematic review serves as a crucial benchmark for both academics and policymakers, emphasizing the need to address systemic injustices in refugee reception across various levels and sectors.

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.

The sport of sambo is the result of the Soviet legacy, embedded in a rich historical tradition that seek to guide its practitioners through life. Here, I explore how this legacy is expressed through its practitioners, specifically, post-socialist sambo-practicing migrants. I conceptualize sambo’s imprint as a structural and cultural conditioner according to Archer’s (1995) analytical dualism, predisposing them towards certain situational logics. When the sambo practitioners interact with local sport environments, several courses of action are discerned. For the first-generation migrants who are born into the ‘sambo way’, the influence of sambo weighs heavily in their decision-making. This is negotiated, and the agency plays a vital part when integrating into the mainstream sports-sphere. However, for migrants not born into the sambo doctrine, the influence is peripheral and diminished in favor of other, stronger, belief systems. In conclusion, sambo exerts a strong normative force, but the transmission between generations severely hampers the meaning and impact of sambo.

This qualitative thematic study aimed to examine the placement of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in compulsory institutional care in Sweden, to expand knowledge regarding their care and treatment. The dataset comprised official documents and anonymized journal documents from personnel detailing the experiences of twenty-five unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in compulsory institutional care organized by the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care in 2015. The study identified three main themes: traumatic life events and mental health, alignment between needs, goals, and treatment, and language difficulties. The findings revealed a high prevalence of severe traumatic experiences among the asylum-seeking minors, with half having endured significant psychological and physical trauma. Mental health issues were inconsistently addressed, and prior traumas were often overlooked in care planning. The majority exhibited various mental health problems, underscoring the need for tailored interventions. The study highlights challenges in aligning unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors' individual needs, treatment goals, and provided care. Language barriers emerged as a critical concern, impeding effective communication and treatment. Approximately 80% of the asylum-seeking minors experienced difficulties in understanding and expressing themselves in Swedish. The limited use of professional interpreters further exacerbated this issue. The study underscores the need for targeted interventions to better support unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors within compulsory institutional settings.

Police officers frequently interact with the public, and many of these interactions involve some form of conflict. As professionals, and representatives of the state, police officers are expected to handle these conflicts in a professional and just manner to maintain positive relationships with the public. Therefore, solid conflict management skills are necessary for any officer in a democratic society. The present scoping review examines the current state of research on police involved conflicts and conflict management in a police context. Results indicate that a majority of the studies have been conducted in the USA and that many of these studies focus on use of force rather than effective conflict management strategies and methods. The study further indicates a number of methodological difficulties in researching this important area of policing, including difficulties in obtaining data as well as a lack of unified definitions of concepts and methods.

In Sweden, personal use of narcotics was criminalized in 1988 and since then, the number of people reported for the crime has steadily increased (BRÅ 2023). Criminalization has been seen as successful as we have lower drug use internationally than many other countries. Recently, however, Swedish drug policy has been questioned and two government inquiries have called on the government to review the consequences of the legislation, especially linked to the high drug mortality rate (SOU 2023:10; 2023:62). The study examines how police officers who work against narcotics view the question of whether use of drugs should be decriminalized or not. The theoretical framework of the study is based on deterrence theory and ethics of care. Deterrence theory involve that the individual actively chooses to abstain from criminal acts because the punishment outweighs the profit of committing a crime (Beccaria 1778, p.29). Ethics of care means that we can and should treat marginalized individuals in society with care and empathy. What is good or what should be achieved is more important than correctness or principled criteria (UNODC n.d.). The study has been conducted through qualitative interviews with police officers who work against drug offenses to examine how they view the criminalization of personal use. The interviews have been analyzed according to the study's questions and theoretical framework. The results show that the police select who they report and the basis for the selection is care for the individual behind the crime. There is a strong consensus among the participants that decriminalization of use of drugs would have negative consequences and they express concern towards both increased use and problems for the police's work against organized crime. The work against drug offence, personal use, is complex and great responsibility is placed on the individual police officer to orient himself in the application of the legislation. The Police Authority should facilitate the work by providing clearer guidelines on how the law is to be applied so that legality is maintained. 

Genom idrottsrörelsens verksamhet förväntas ett brett spektrum av mervärden, utöver enbart idrottslig utveckling och sportsliga framgångar. Främjandet av fysisk aktivitet, samhörighet, meningsfull fritidssysselsättning, social inkludering, integration, demokratisk fostran och brottförebyggande arbete bidrar till att motivera statlig och kommunal finansiering. I det implicita kontraktet mellan staten och idrottsrörelsen ingår även en aktiv strävan att vara öppen och tillgänglig för alla. Engagemanget för breddat deltagande utspelar sig i hög grad inom lokala medlemsbaserade föreningar, där ideella ledare står inför komplexa utmaningar. Ledaren har en nyckelroll, navigerar genom behov och förväntningar från utövare, föräldrar, styrelser och stat där egna förmågor och resurser blir avgörande. För att underlätta för den ideella lokala ledaren behövs olika former av stödstrukturer som behöver synliggöras tillsammans med ledarnas förutsättningar och bidrag till idrottsrörelsen.

Knowledge of factors contributing to cybercrime threats is needed to plan effective prevention strategies to combat the increasingly common occurrence of cybercrime. This scoping review summarizes current status of the literature published on the demographic, socioeconomic, and technological determinants of cybercrime offenders and victims in Nordic countries. The review followed Arksey and O’Malley’s methodology and the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, leading to the selection of 16 articles published between 2013 and 2022 for critical appraisal and data extraction. Only two studies focused on cybercrime offenders. The majority of studies (n = 10) were conducted in Finland and the dominant types of crime were harassment and online hate. Age, gender, living alone, immigration background, income, and education played different roles in determining victimization for different types of cybercrime. Associations between victimization and technological factors such as computer skills, protective measures, and specific platforms have also been identified. This review contributes to the emerging research area of cybercrime in Nordic countries by mapping the context of cybercrime and highlighting areas where further research is needed to ensure the protection of individuals in an increasingly digitalized world.

Sexual and gender-based harassment is a work environment concern, especially in hierarchical and male-dominant organisations such as the police. This scoping review aims to examine the existing literature on such harassment against police employees in Europe to identify the available knowledge and highlight the gaps for future studies. Following the Arksey and O'Malley framework, 16 relevant articles were analysed. Most of the studies were focused on sexual harassment, and gender-based harassment was mostly absent or mixed with other discriminations. The analysis resulted in six main themes: existence of sexual and gender-based harassment; perpetrators; associated factors; consequences; individual response; and impact of organisational policies. The findings demonstrate that such harassment remains prevalent among police employees, emphasising the need for continuous and rigorous supervision, evaluation, and comprehensive revision of policies by police authorities. This study recommends further research to address the identified gaps in this field.

PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT

The findings presented in this article have the potential to significantly advance the field of police research in Europe by providing a comprehensive map of existing knowledge and identifying important gaps within this research domain. Moreover, the study facilitates the application of more accurate and comprehensive methodologies. Additionally, the outcomes of this research can directly benefit police authorities by offering insights to enhance organizational culture and the work environment for police employees.

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between modern racism and rape victim and perpetrator blame, and rape perception. Participants from both a community population (n = 211) and a student population (n = 200) read a rape vignette and provided their judgements of blame towards a victim and perpetrator, their perception of the event as rape, and later answered the modern racism scale. Results showed a significant positive relationship between modern racism and rape victim blame (r = .35, R2 ×× 100 = 12.1%), while modern racism had a significant negative relationship with perpetrator blame (r = −.27, R2 ×× 100 = 7.5%) and rape perception (r = −.29, R2 ×× 100 = 8.7%). Implications for the criminal justice system as well as suggestions for future research were discussed.

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.

This article examines how a virtual case that prepares students for practical scenario training affects police students’ performance in a practical scenario training. This study included 69 Swedish police students at the Basic Training Programme for Police Officers–35 assigned to a virtual police case (VCASE) and 34 assigned to a conventional teacher-led (CON) lesson. A questionnaire captured how students experience training conditions and a blind assessment by police officers evaluated the students’ performance in the practical scenario training. The results show that both the VCASE and CON participants thought that the training they received before the practical training was meaningful and motivating. However, to a significantly higher degree than the CON students, the VCASE students thought that their preparation helped them during the practical training. The expert assessment of one practical scenario (stopping a suspected stolen car) showed that the VCASE participants performed better than the CON participants in three out of five criteria. In conclusion, the VCASE and the CON training had different effects on the students’ performance in the practical scenario: compared to the CON training, the VCASE training seemed to more effectively help the police students solve the situations presented in the practical scenario training.