– We have good competence in studying causal relationships. In other words, to refine the effect of a reform that is introduced, says Hans Grönqvist, project manager and professor of economics at Linnaeus University.
During the ongoing wave of violence, there will also be political developments regarding measures against organized crime.
During Thursday, it emerged, among other things, that the government wants to introduce youth prisons in three years and that the Social Democrats want to see changes to the law so that the military can help the police.
A new research collaboration, “Svenska kriminalpolitika laboratoryet”, will now set out to evaluate which criminal policy reforms really lead to reduced crime.
Follow individuals
With the help of large amounts of registry data, they will, among other things, follow individuals who have been sentenced in recent decades – to see whether those who received a more severe sentence reoffend or not.
Other interventions to be investigated are the introduction of foot shackles in the 90s and the increased number of police officers in recent years. The researchers can also follow the effect of reforms introduced in the present.
– We hope that criminal policy will become more knowledge-based, says Peter Lindström, professor of criminology.
Hear him answer questions about the research project in the clip above.
Research environments
The Swedish Research Council is now distributing project money for the first time to so-called research environments within the subject of crime, a total of SEK 99 million is being distributed to seven projects (see fact box).
The “Swedish Criminal Policy Laboratory” project is a collaboration between Linnaeus University, Stockholm University, Harvard University, the London School of Economics and the Paris School of Economics, and has received SEK 17.7 million.