Crime is unequally distributed with respect to both who becomes involved in offending and the frequency with which these individuals offend. However, we know less about how these properties of the crime distribution have themselves changed over time. In cases where crime levels have changed, have these changes been general, affecting all social groups equally, or have they been more focused on certain social groups? We examine the changing social composition of known offenders using Swedish administrative data to determine whether inequality in offending is increasing or decreasing. Our analyses are based on a multicohort approach. The results show that the proportion of convicted men has decreased. Those who are convicted for crimes have therefore become an increasingly selected group. This has also entailed that they have increasingly come to be made up of groups with less resourceful socio-economic backgrounds, which in turn has fostered a more unequal distribution of crime.

Background: Drug use was criminalized in Sweden in 1988 with aim of reducing the number of consumers and drug-related risks and harms. Imprisonment was introduced into the penalty scale in 1993 to improve the legislation's effectiveness. The criminalization has never been evaluated. Method: Goal-attainment evaluation based on a range of indicators from surveys, case-finding estimates, healthcare and cause-of-death data, and crime statistics. Comparative drug policy analysis is conducted with other Nordic countries. Results: The criminalization is not followed by a reduced or more expensive drug supply, reduced consumption levels, problematic drug use or healthcare needs, or to fewer drug-related deaths. Most of the indicators instead show the opposite. Control costs are high, and trends are no better than those of other Nordic countries, despite Sweden's more repressive drug policy. Conclusion: Criminalization emerges as an ineffective, expensive and harmful means of dealing with the drugs problem.

Since the 1990s, Sweden has witnessed a steady increase in the control measures focused on drug offences. These changes are results of political dynamics once pushed by centre-right parties but thereafter embraced by Social Democrats in government. The article examines the structure of police controls of drug offences and the extent to which these controls have focused on different sociodemographic groups during the period 1995-2015. The study shows that this intensified control of minor drug crimes has resulted in successively larger proportions of youths from deprived areas being forced to provide samples of body fluids. The criminalization of drug use constitutes an example of the significance of crime policy for both crime levels and the composition of the offender population.

Ungdomsbrottslighet framstår som ett av de centrala problem­områdena i såväl kriminologisk forskning som i svensk samhällsdebatt. I den här antologin medverkar flera av landets främsta experter på ungdomsbrottslighet. Utifrån sin forskning belyser de centrala frågor kring ungdomars brottslighet. Denna femte upplaga innehåller fem helt nyskrivna kapitel som behandlar skjutningar i gängmiljöer, skolan och brottsligheten, ungas utsatthet för brott, ungdomsbrottslighet ur ett livsförloppsperspektiv samt social förändring och ungdomsbrottslighet. Övriga kapitel har genomgått omfattande uppdateringar och omarbetningar. Sammantaget ger boken utifrån skilda perspektiv och metoder en mångfacetterad kunskap om ungdomsbrottslighetens karaktär, omfattning och utveckling, dess orsaker och förklaringar samt om samhällets åtgärder och reaktioner.

This study investigates Swedish conviction trends by individuals’ immigrant background for the period 1973–2017. The central research question is whether relative differences in conviction levels have increased, declined or remained unchanged over recent decades. This question is examined in part using a traditional cross-sectional approach, and in part using a cohort-based approach. All results are presented by gender, and results for the cohort-based approach also by holding socioeconomic background constant. The results show that conviction levels have decreased, to a greater extent among men than among women, irrespective of immigrant background. The level of overrepresentation among those born in Sweden to foreign-born parents has increased somewhat, while the overrepresentation of those born abroad has decreased towards the end of the period examined.

This article examines how women’s crime has been reflected in crime statistics and media crime reporting. We employ a long-term historical perspective, looking at developments from the beginning of the 20th century until the present. We describe the overarching processes that underlie the decline in the gender gap in convictions for theft and violent crime, respectively, at different times during the past century. The study also use a new data set comprised of newspaper articles on women’s and men’s offending published by the Swedish press between 1905 and 2015. We compare the trend in the number of articles focused on offences committed by women and men respectively, variations in the offence types that the daily press choose to report on and the overarching explanations for crime that are discussed in the articles. The results show that levels of coverage and the types of crime that attract media attention are strikingly similar for men and women, but throughout the whole period there is a greater need for the newspapers to find reasons for women’s offending. Moreover, there has been no marked increase in the press focus on women’s crime as women have comprised an increasing proportion of those convicted of criminal offences.