Sara Uhnoo - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Sara Uhnoo
Sociologisk Forskning
Artikeln skriver in sig i det mångdisciplinära forskningsfält som intresserar sig för ungas livsv... more Artikeln skriver in sig i det mångdisciplinära forskningsfält som intresserar sig för ungas livsvillkor och kulturella uttryck i stigmatiserade bostadsområden i svenska storstäder. Under senare år har en mobilisering med krav på social rättvisa växt fram i dessa områden. I denna artikel undersöker vi innehållet i fyra poddar som kan betraktas som viktiga i denna sociala mobilisering. Studien har tre specifika syften, som också ringar in dess kunskapsbidrag. För det första undersöker vi hur ortenpoddar, det vill säga poddar som handlar om orten och är producerade av unga därifrån, kan ses som uttryck för hur marginaliserade unga handskas med den rasifiering och underordnade klassposition som är en del av deras uppväxtvillkor. För det andra visar vår analys hur poddar fungerar som mötesplatser för unga i den marginaliserade förorten såväl som arenor för motstånd i form av motoffentligheter. För det tredje bidrar studien med kunskap om poddars folkbildande potential genom att analyser...
Young People and Learning Processes in School and Everyday Life, 2019
Loyalty is commonly regarded as a virtue, by many social theorists as a lost virtue in an increas... more Loyalty is commonly regarded as a virtue, by many social theorists as a lost virtue in an increasingly individualized world. We argue that loyalty is not altogether lost, rather loyalty is institutionally demanded and enforced in certain working life enclaves, amongst others, the police force. In these enclaves, demands for total commitment and exclusive loyalty pose inherent dilemmas that generate problems for both the working environment and the services that the organisation is obligated to deliver. In this chapter we interrogate how ethnicity interfaces with the police culture and organisational structure in a major Swedish police force. We focus on the role that loyalty plays in defining how ethnicity interacts with mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion at the administrative level of the organisation as well as with the structures of rank-and-file police culture. The police authorities, perceived as ‘greedy institutions’, demand and enforce exclusive loyalty. We argue that ethn...
Farligt för främlingar men tryggt för dem som bor där 36 »Man slår inte varandra« men »du ska int... more Farligt för främlingar men tryggt för dem som bor där 36 »Man slår inte varandra« men »du ska inte komma hit om du inte bor här« 37 »Man lär sig undvika dom« men »det är klart om det kommer några andra« 38 »Man känner ju dom flesta«-»man har folk bakom sig härifrån« 38 Rasistiskt våld 39 VAD GÖR DE ÅT RÄDSLA? 41 Undvikande strategier 42 Att undvika platser eller erövra och avmystifiera dem 42 Att dölja värdesaker 43 Att undvika personer eller grupper 43 Att undvika »bråk« eller slåss för respekt 44 Beredskapsstrategier 46 Att kunna försvara sig 46 Killars upplevda osårbarhet-»klart att man kan försvara sig« 46 Tjejer som fysiskt svaga 47 Att bära kedjor, nycklar och mobiltelefoner men inte kniv 48 Sociala strategier 49 Hemvägen 49 »Man är aldrig ensam« 50 Killar beskyddar tjejer 51 Kompisar ställer upp-gör sällskap och »backar upp« 51 Att ha eller inte ha tilltro till vuxna som trygghetsskapare 52 Okända vuxna inte att lita på: »ingen gör nånting« 52 Både möjligheter och begränsningar för vuxnas trygghetsskapande 54 Kognitiva motståndsstrategier 56 Betydelsen av närståendes altruistisk rädsla och förmaningar 56 Att tänka bort risker och egen rädsla 57
"Abstract" "This section summarizes the results from the project Evaluation of Mun... more "Abstract" "This section summarizes the results from the project Evaluation of Municipalities’ Efforts to" "Prevent Arson. Based on the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency’s review of measures to prevent school arson in 80 Swedish municipalities, the aim of the evaluation was to identify and discuss work models and interventions that appear to be successful. To this end, the anti- arson efforts in 20 municipalities were analysed in-depth (encompassing a total of 15 different preventive measures). Thirteen of the studied municipalities show a reduction in school arson during the period 2005–2011; seven show an increase. By comparing these two groups, it was possible to identify successful combinations of anti-arson measures. The method used – qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) – implies comparison of combinations of measures." "Two combinations of measures were found to be successful in larger municipalities:" "A" "1) cross-sectoral specific cooperation, 2) camera surveillance and 3) extended secondary prevention" "B" "1) cross-sectoral specific cooperation, 2) patrolling and 3) extended secondary prevention" "Cross-sectoral cooperation implies that several actors (for example schools, social services," "police and rescue services) coordinate their work and resources related to the problem of school firesetting. To be successful, this method must be combined with situational prevention in the form of either camera surveillance or patrolling. A third component is also required, namely social prevention in the form of extended secondary prevention, which here refers to interventions targeting individuals or groups at risk of engaging in deviant behaviour. ‘Extended’ means that the measures are recurring and intensive in nature. It should be emphasized that it is the specific combinations of these measures that appear to be successful; individual measures or alternative combinations of measures do not seem as successful." "It should also be emphasised that the results summarized above apply to larger municipalities," "for the simple reason that it is not possible to conclude anything about the outcome of implemented measures without a sufficiently large number of cases of school arson. Another important aspect of the evaluation is that the data collected from the municipalities vary for example in terms of how different measures are labelled, defined and documented. Needless to say, this may affect the comparisons made. In addition, the evaluation design, i.e. a focus on implemented measures in relation to increases and reductions in school arson, implies that other possibly relevant factors, such as closing of schools, demographic changes and changes in the local structure of social problems, are not taken into account. However, the results are well in line with previous research on arson and the effects of methods used in arson prevention." "Keywords: preventive work, school arson, combinations of measures, cross-sectoral" "cooperation, camera surveillance or patrolling, extended secondary prevention."
Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 2021
Denna artikel handlar om raddningstjanstens och frivilligas insatser och samverkan vid skogsbrand... more Denna artikel handlar om raddningstjanstens och frivilligas insatser och samverkan vid skogsbranden i Vastmanland ar 2014. Artikeln anknyter till forskning om professioner och organisering av arbete, samt till forskning om professionellas respektive frivilligas insatser och samverkan vid kriser och olyckor. En kvalitativ analys av intervjuer med raddningstjanstpersonal och frivilliga, inlagg pa sociala media samt sekundarmaterial i form av rapporter och utvarderingar av raddningsinsatsen visar att insatserna vid skogsbranden i Vastmanland, och kontakterna mellan professionella och frivilliga, tog form i spanningen mellan olika former av institutionella logiker: professionell logik, lokalsamhalleslogik, byrakratisk logik och marknadslogik.
Denna rapport sammanfattar resultaten fran projektet Brandutsatta hogstadieskolor: orsaker, preve... more Denna rapport sammanfattar resultaten fran projektet Brandutsatta hogstadieskolor: orsaker, preventiva faktorer och effektiva motatgarder. Skolor tillhor de byggnader som oftast utsatts for brandanlaggelser, och i Sverige ar det sarskilt vanligt med brander i storre hogstadieskolor i storre stader. En utgangspunkt i projektet ar att skolor inte bara utsatts for skolbrander, utan ocksa ar viktiga preventiva arenor och aktorer. I projektet studeras 20 sarskilt brandutsatta hogstadieskolor, varav halften ar placerade i Goteborg och halften i Malmo. Den undersokta perioden ar ar 2004-2013. Ett omfattande material har samlats in och analyserats: registerdata fran MSB om raddningstjanstens utryckningar till skolorna, besok pa och observationer av samtliga skolor, intervjuer med strategiskt valda aktorer, dokument fran skolor och kommuner, statistik fran Skolverket, inspektionsrapporter fran Skolinspektionen, samt material och sammanstallningar fran Forsakrings AB Gota Lejon, Grundskolefor...
Professions and Professionalism, 2021
Discretion is of major interest in research on professions. This article focuses on professionals... more Discretion is of major interest in research on professions. This article focuses on professionals’ discretionary reasoning about collaboration with spontaneous volunteers. By applying theories on discretion and institutional logics and drawing on disaster management research, we analyse interviews with fire and rescue service professionals involved in managing a large-scale forest fire in Sweden. We identify five major dilemmas concerning the involvement of spontaneous volunteers in the official disaster response and analyse the influence on professional reasoning of multiple institutional logics (professional, citizen, bureaucratic and market) embedded in the emergency organization. The analytical framework connects structure and agency by linking institutional logics to discretional reasoning, and the findings clarify professional emergency responders’ perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of involving spontaneous volunteers in an operation.
Emotions and Society, 2020
Authorities always need help in disaster situations, and in line with the current trend of commun... more Authorities always need help in disaster situations, and in line with the current trend of community resilience, they see support from active citizens as a promising solution. However, the uncontrolled inflow of spontaneous volunteers and other resources into a disaster area poses serious dilemmas for professional responders. The uniqueness of this study lies in its approach to authorities’ management of spontaneous volunteers from the perspective of the sociology of emotions. Drawing on an interactionist perspective of emotions, the objective is to deepen our understanding of how and why professional responders use interpersonal emotion management in interactions with spontaneous volunteers during disasters. We discuss this issue in relation to a specific disaster operation. Building on findings from interviews with personnel from the fire and rescue services, key officials and volunteers involved in the management of a large-scale forest fire in Sweden, we show that professionals’...
Nordic Journal of Criminology, 2021
A new rape legislation, premised on the requirement of voluntariness, entered into force in Swede... more A new rape legislation, premised on the requirement of voluntariness, entered into force in Sweden during 2018. This article examines the application and interpretation of voluntariness in Swedish negligent rape judgements with a unique combination of the theoretical perspectives' sociology of emotion and feminist-legal studies. The material consists of 12 court judgements, from the period 2018-2020, analysed by means of thematic content analysis. The findings show that the judgements in negligent rape cases are based on an evaluation of credibility, supported by evidence that consists of witness statements. These evaluations entail emotions and stereotypes about gender and sexuality, pertaining to rape myths-leading to inconsistent outcomes. Yet, some fundamental assumptions about gender and sexuality are challenged, indicating that the new law may invite discursive shifts and enhanced reflexivity in legal reasoning. The findings are valuable in the work to minimize legal discrimination and secure equality before the law.
Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, 2019
Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 2018
Many Western-style democracies have witnessed a general shift in the distribution of crime preven... more Many Western-style democracies have witnessed a general shift in the distribution of crime prevention responsibility, away from the state and increasingly to citizens themselves. Civil society is today more and more often called upon as an additional policing resource. This article explores the phenomenon of voluntary citizen participation in policing in Sweden, based on an analysis of 9280 news-media articles. One state-sanctioned (the Volunteers of the Police) and one autonomous civic (Missing People Sweden) initiative were examined, from their respective start until 2017, to understand the role played by police-citizen partnerships in the establishment and legitimation of voluntary policing forms in Sweden. A high degree of integration between police and volunteer work was found, enabling not only effective citizen participation, but also having an influence on police operations. The more effective and publicly visible the voluntary policing bodies were, the more pressure there was on the police to defend its legitimacy, ally itself with the volunteers and regulate the latter's activities while holding them responsible for their actions. Arguably, however, with the police-citizen relationship being one of integration and mutual dependence, the division of labour and the accountability of both parties risk becoming blurred or even confused.
Nordic Journal of Criminology, 2019
Firesetting is one of the crime acts most representative of youth crime, and schools are among th... more Firesetting is one of the crime acts most representative of youth crime, and schools are among the buildings most often targeted, causing significant social, material and economic damage. This study examines schools as arenas with particular exposure to deliberate firesetting and as actors interpreting and utilizing their organizational scope to prevent school fires. The focus on school organizations is unique and urgently needed in research on juvenile firesetting, given their pivotal but under-researched role in crime prevention. The study is based on an in-depth analysis of data (interviews, documents and official registry data) related to 20 fire-exposed lower secondary schools in two major Swedish cities. These schools mobilized a broad repertoire of social, situational and structural measures. Interviewed school personnel perceived and responded to firesetting in relation to the institutional school setting, group dynamics, individual characteristics and local context. The schools were generally located in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and faced comprehensive educational and social challenges. The firesetting problemand paradoxically some wellintentioned preventive effortsrisk adding further dimensions to school segregation and inequality, potentially increasing stigmatization and marginalization.
Policing and Society, 2019
Citizen involvement in policing is a means to enhance public confidence in the police and their l... more Citizen involvement in policing is a means to enhance public confidence in the police and their legitimacy, and to increase their effectiveness. However, governmental control over voluntary policing is fraught with difficulty. We study the relationship between police and citizen volunteers in partnerships, looking specifically at roles and responsibilities in policing and the parties' reflections upon regulation and autonomy in relation to accountability and legal certainty. Our objective is to illuminate how mutual dependencies in police-volunteer partnerships are managed in practice, and the implications thereof. Two types of police-citizen partnerships in Swedenthe Volunteers of the Police and Missing People Swedenare explored based on interviews with volunteers and Swedish Police Authority representatives. We show that in police-volunteer partnerships characterised by a high degree of integration of tasks and responsibilities as well as a high degree of trust, boundaries become fuzzy and porous. Despite intentions and great efforts to demarcate what volunteers should and should not do, responsibilities of the state police have been delegated to the extent that civilian participation has gone well into the heart of front-line policing. We discuss the consequences of these blurred boundaries in terms of lack of accountability and legal uncertainty.
European Journal of Criminology, 2015
Criminology has an incomplete and imprecise understanding of the qualitative aspects of juvenile ... more Criminology has an incomplete and imprecise understanding of the qualitative aspects of juvenile co-offending. This article explores one type of juvenile crime, namely arson. Using publicly available judicial records, it analyses 60 cases of fire-setting in Sweden in which there were two or more perpetrators aged under 21 acting jointly. The resulting categorization shows the social organization of juvenile fire-setting to be centred around nine different positions that a young person can take during the planning, preparation and commission phase of an arson offence. The findings highlight the usefulness of bringing together criminological research on co-offending and juvenile fire-setting to better understand the dynamics driving and facilitating youth arson and group aspects of youth delinquency and crime more generally.
Villkor Och Vagar For Grundlaggande Yrkesutbildning Nagra Forskarperspektiv, 2001
Sociologforbundets Arsmote Halmstad 2010, 2010
Rather than adults’ indignation about today’s youth, the object of investigation in this disserta... more Rather than adults’ indignation about today’s youth, the object of investigation in this dissertation is young people’s moral rules. Rules are flexible and formable, often unclear and ambiguous, which means that they need to be interpreted in order to be usable in concrete situations. The thesis analyses young people’s moral work when they talk about violence and fighting between youths. It proceeds by distinguishing which rules they create, recreate and negotiate, which repertoires of interpretation they use, and which societal discourses they refer and relate to. The dissertation’s empirical material consists of fifteen tape-recorded and verbatim-transcribed interviews (individual, in pairs or focus-groups), with 41 young people aged 15–21, about violence and fighting. In order to place the interviewed youths’ locally anchored moral work in a broader context and obtain a basis to contrast it with, the youth’s talk is related to more general adult-dominated and public societal discourses. A limited discourse analysis of documents such as daily newspaper articles has thus been carried out. The analysis of the interviewees’ moral work is summarized in the form of a typology of young people’s fighting and violence. It shows that youths’ talk about what one may or must not do to another young person is complex, ambivalent and equivocal, and that the rules of violence are negotiable and varies with the situation and the relationship (the relative power relationship, degree of social distance and whether it is a positive or negative relationship). It also makes clear that rules are actively referred to, produced, reproduced, and negotiated in the interviews. What is made morally relevant varies between different forms of fighting and violence. In a youth fight, the beginning is important, but also how the opponent reacts and when, whether, and how one may strike the first blow or return a blow. In the moral work on play fights and sibling fights, the relationship and the purpose are given greater weight. In talk about boys’ blows, kicks and sexual offences against girls, great importance is attributed to physical strength, but also to the character of the violence—whether it is constructed as sexual or as solely physical. The interviewees set limits on what is allowed or not allowed for a young person – stranger, peer, sibling and partner – to do. Their moral work shows that social control is exercised even in the absence of adults, and that young people control themselves and each other through a host of subtle, informal social rules for violence and fighting between young people
Sociologisk Forskning
Artikeln skriver in sig i det mångdisciplinära forskningsfält som intresserar sig för ungas livsv... more Artikeln skriver in sig i det mångdisciplinära forskningsfält som intresserar sig för ungas livsvillkor och kulturella uttryck i stigmatiserade bostadsområden i svenska storstäder. Under senare år har en mobilisering med krav på social rättvisa växt fram i dessa områden. I denna artikel undersöker vi innehållet i fyra poddar som kan betraktas som viktiga i denna sociala mobilisering. Studien har tre specifika syften, som också ringar in dess kunskapsbidrag. För det första undersöker vi hur ortenpoddar, det vill säga poddar som handlar om orten och är producerade av unga därifrån, kan ses som uttryck för hur marginaliserade unga handskas med den rasifiering och underordnade klassposition som är en del av deras uppväxtvillkor. För det andra visar vår analys hur poddar fungerar som mötesplatser för unga i den marginaliserade förorten såväl som arenor för motstånd i form av motoffentligheter. För det tredje bidrar studien med kunskap om poddars folkbildande potential genom att analyser...
Young People and Learning Processes in School and Everyday Life, 2019
Loyalty is commonly regarded as a virtue, by many social theorists as a lost virtue in an increas... more Loyalty is commonly regarded as a virtue, by many social theorists as a lost virtue in an increasingly individualized world. We argue that loyalty is not altogether lost, rather loyalty is institutionally demanded and enforced in certain working life enclaves, amongst others, the police force. In these enclaves, demands for total commitment and exclusive loyalty pose inherent dilemmas that generate problems for both the working environment and the services that the organisation is obligated to deliver. In this chapter we interrogate how ethnicity interfaces with the police culture and organisational structure in a major Swedish police force. We focus on the role that loyalty plays in defining how ethnicity interacts with mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion at the administrative level of the organisation as well as with the structures of rank-and-file police culture. The police authorities, perceived as ‘greedy institutions’, demand and enforce exclusive loyalty. We argue that ethn...
Farligt för främlingar men tryggt för dem som bor där 36 »Man slår inte varandra« men »du ska int... more Farligt för främlingar men tryggt för dem som bor där 36 »Man slår inte varandra« men »du ska inte komma hit om du inte bor här« 37 »Man lär sig undvika dom« men »det är klart om det kommer några andra« 38 »Man känner ju dom flesta«-»man har folk bakom sig härifrån« 38 Rasistiskt våld 39 VAD GÖR DE ÅT RÄDSLA? 41 Undvikande strategier 42 Att undvika platser eller erövra och avmystifiera dem 42 Att dölja värdesaker 43 Att undvika personer eller grupper 43 Att undvika »bråk« eller slåss för respekt 44 Beredskapsstrategier 46 Att kunna försvara sig 46 Killars upplevda osårbarhet-»klart att man kan försvara sig« 46 Tjejer som fysiskt svaga 47 Att bära kedjor, nycklar och mobiltelefoner men inte kniv 48 Sociala strategier 49 Hemvägen 49 »Man är aldrig ensam« 50 Killar beskyddar tjejer 51 Kompisar ställer upp-gör sällskap och »backar upp« 51 Att ha eller inte ha tilltro till vuxna som trygghetsskapare 52 Okända vuxna inte att lita på: »ingen gör nånting« 52 Både möjligheter och begränsningar för vuxnas trygghetsskapande 54 Kognitiva motståndsstrategier 56 Betydelsen av närståendes altruistisk rädsla och förmaningar 56 Att tänka bort risker och egen rädsla 57
"Abstract" "This section summarizes the results from the project Evaluation of Mun... more "Abstract" "This section summarizes the results from the project Evaluation of Municipalities’ Efforts to" "Prevent Arson. Based on the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency’s review of measures to prevent school arson in 80 Swedish municipalities, the aim of the evaluation was to identify and discuss work models and interventions that appear to be successful. To this end, the anti- arson efforts in 20 municipalities were analysed in-depth (encompassing a total of 15 different preventive measures). Thirteen of the studied municipalities show a reduction in school arson during the period 2005–2011; seven show an increase. By comparing these two groups, it was possible to identify successful combinations of anti-arson measures. The method used – qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) – implies comparison of combinations of measures." "Two combinations of measures were found to be successful in larger municipalities:" "A" "1) cross-sectoral specific cooperation, 2) camera surveillance and 3) extended secondary prevention" "B" "1) cross-sectoral specific cooperation, 2) patrolling and 3) extended secondary prevention" "Cross-sectoral cooperation implies that several actors (for example schools, social services," "police and rescue services) coordinate their work and resources related to the problem of school firesetting. To be successful, this method must be combined with situational prevention in the form of either camera surveillance or patrolling. A third component is also required, namely social prevention in the form of extended secondary prevention, which here refers to interventions targeting individuals or groups at risk of engaging in deviant behaviour. ‘Extended’ means that the measures are recurring and intensive in nature. It should be emphasized that it is the specific combinations of these measures that appear to be successful; individual measures or alternative combinations of measures do not seem as successful." "It should also be emphasised that the results summarized above apply to larger municipalities," "for the simple reason that it is not possible to conclude anything about the outcome of implemented measures without a sufficiently large number of cases of school arson. Another important aspect of the evaluation is that the data collected from the municipalities vary for example in terms of how different measures are labelled, defined and documented. Needless to say, this may affect the comparisons made. In addition, the evaluation design, i.e. a focus on implemented measures in relation to increases and reductions in school arson, implies that other possibly relevant factors, such as closing of schools, demographic changes and changes in the local structure of social problems, are not taken into account. However, the results are well in line with previous research on arson and the effects of methods used in arson prevention." "Keywords: preventive work, school arson, combinations of measures, cross-sectoral" "cooperation, camera surveillance or patrolling, extended secondary prevention."
Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 2021
Denna artikel handlar om raddningstjanstens och frivilligas insatser och samverkan vid skogsbrand... more Denna artikel handlar om raddningstjanstens och frivilligas insatser och samverkan vid skogsbranden i Vastmanland ar 2014. Artikeln anknyter till forskning om professioner och organisering av arbete, samt till forskning om professionellas respektive frivilligas insatser och samverkan vid kriser och olyckor. En kvalitativ analys av intervjuer med raddningstjanstpersonal och frivilliga, inlagg pa sociala media samt sekundarmaterial i form av rapporter och utvarderingar av raddningsinsatsen visar att insatserna vid skogsbranden i Vastmanland, och kontakterna mellan professionella och frivilliga, tog form i spanningen mellan olika former av institutionella logiker: professionell logik, lokalsamhalleslogik, byrakratisk logik och marknadslogik.
Denna rapport sammanfattar resultaten fran projektet Brandutsatta hogstadieskolor: orsaker, preve... more Denna rapport sammanfattar resultaten fran projektet Brandutsatta hogstadieskolor: orsaker, preventiva faktorer och effektiva motatgarder. Skolor tillhor de byggnader som oftast utsatts for brandanlaggelser, och i Sverige ar det sarskilt vanligt med brander i storre hogstadieskolor i storre stader. En utgangspunkt i projektet ar att skolor inte bara utsatts for skolbrander, utan ocksa ar viktiga preventiva arenor och aktorer. I projektet studeras 20 sarskilt brandutsatta hogstadieskolor, varav halften ar placerade i Goteborg och halften i Malmo. Den undersokta perioden ar ar 2004-2013. Ett omfattande material har samlats in och analyserats: registerdata fran MSB om raddningstjanstens utryckningar till skolorna, besok pa och observationer av samtliga skolor, intervjuer med strategiskt valda aktorer, dokument fran skolor och kommuner, statistik fran Skolverket, inspektionsrapporter fran Skolinspektionen, samt material och sammanstallningar fran Forsakrings AB Gota Lejon, Grundskolefor...
Professions and Professionalism, 2021
Discretion is of major interest in research on professions. This article focuses on professionals... more Discretion is of major interest in research on professions. This article focuses on professionals’ discretionary reasoning about collaboration with spontaneous volunteers. By applying theories on discretion and institutional logics and drawing on disaster management research, we analyse interviews with fire and rescue service professionals involved in managing a large-scale forest fire in Sweden. We identify five major dilemmas concerning the involvement of spontaneous volunteers in the official disaster response and analyse the influence on professional reasoning of multiple institutional logics (professional, citizen, bureaucratic and market) embedded in the emergency organization. The analytical framework connects structure and agency by linking institutional logics to discretional reasoning, and the findings clarify professional emergency responders’ perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of involving spontaneous volunteers in an operation.
Emotions and Society, 2020
Authorities always need help in disaster situations, and in line with the current trend of commun... more Authorities always need help in disaster situations, and in line with the current trend of community resilience, they see support from active citizens as a promising solution. However, the uncontrolled inflow of spontaneous volunteers and other resources into a disaster area poses serious dilemmas for professional responders. The uniqueness of this study lies in its approach to authorities’ management of spontaneous volunteers from the perspective of the sociology of emotions. Drawing on an interactionist perspective of emotions, the objective is to deepen our understanding of how and why professional responders use interpersonal emotion management in interactions with spontaneous volunteers during disasters. We discuss this issue in relation to a specific disaster operation. Building on findings from interviews with personnel from the fire and rescue services, key officials and volunteers involved in the management of a large-scale forest fire in Sweden, we show that professionals’...
Nordic Journal of Criminology, 2021
A new rape legislation, premised on the requirement of voluntariness, entered into force in Swede... more A new rape legislation, premised on the requirement of voluntariness, entered into force in Sweden during 2018. This article examines the application and interpretation of voluntariness in Swedish negligent rape judgements with a unique combination of the theoretical perspectives' sociology of emotion and feminist-legal studies. The material consists of 12 court judgements, from the period 2018-2020, analysed by means of thematic content analysis. The findings show that the judgements in negligent rape cases are based on an evaluation of credibility, supported by evidence that consists of witness statements. These evaluations entail emotions and stereotypes about gender and sexuality, pertaining to rape myths-leading to inconsistent outcomes. Yet, some fundamental assumptions about gender and sexuality are challenged, indicating that the new law may invite discursive shifts and enhanced reflexivity in legal reasoning. The findings are valuable in the work to minimize legal discrimination and secure equality before the law.
Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, 2019
Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 2018
Many Western-style democracies have witnessed a general shift in the distribution of crime preven... more Many Western-style democracies have witnessed a general shift in the distribution of crime prevention responsibility, away from the state and increasingly to citizens themselves. Civil society is today more and more often called upon as an additional policing resource. This article explores the phenomenon of voluntary citizen participation in policing in Sweden, based on an analysis of 9280 news-media articles. One state-sanctioned (the Volunteers of the Police) and one autonomous civic (Missing People Sweden) initiative were examined, from their respective start until 2017, to understand the role played by police-citizen partnerships in the establishment and legitimation of voluntary policing forms in Sweden. A high degree of integration between police and volunteer work was found, enabling not only effective citizen participation, but also having an influence on police operations. The more effective and publicly visible the voluntary policing bodies were, the more pressure there was on the police to defend its legitimacy, ally itself with the volunteers and regulate the latter's activities while holding them responsible for their actions. Arguably, however, with the police-citizen relationship being one of integration and mutual dependence, the division of labour and the accountability of both parties risk becoming blurred or even confused.
Nordic Journal of Criminology, 2019
Firesetting is one of the crime acts most representative of youth crime, and schools are among th... more Firesetting is one of the crime acts most representative of youth crime, and schools are among the buildings most often targeted, causing significant social, material and economic damage. This study examines schools as arenas with particular exposure to deliberate firesetting and as actors interpreting and utilizing their organizational scope to prevent school fires. The focus on school organizations is unique and urgently needed in research on juvenile firesetting, given their pivotal but under-researched role in crime prevention. The study is based on an in-depth analysis of data (interviews, documents and official registry data) related to 20 fire-exposed lower secondary schools in two major Swedish cities. These schools mobilized a broad repertoire of social, situational and structural measures. Interviewed school personnel perceived and responded to firesetting in relation to the institutional school setting, group dynamics, individual characteristics and local context. The schools were generally located in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and faced comprehensive educational and social challenges. The firesetting problemand paradoxically some wellintentioned preventive effortsrisk adding further dimensions to school segregation and inequality, potentially increasing stigmatization and marginalization.
Policing and Society, 2019
Citizen involvement in policing is a means to enhance public confidence in the police and their l... more Citizen involvement in policing is a means to enhance public confidence in the police and their legitimacy, and to increase their effectiveness. However, governmental control over voluntary policing is fraught with difficulty. We study the relationship between police and citizen volunteers in partnerships, looking specifically at roles and responsibilities in policing and the parties' reflections upon regulation and autonomy in relation to accountability and legal certainty. Our objective is to illuminate how mutual dependencies in police-volunteer partnerships are managed in practice, and the implications thereof. Two types of police-citizen partnerships in Swedenthe Volunteers of the Police and Missing People Swedenare explored based on interviews with volunteers and Swedish Police Authority representatives. We show that in police-volunteer partnerships characterised by a high degree of integration of tasks and responsibilities as well as a high degree of trust, boundaries become fuzzy and porous. Despite intentions and great efforts to demarcate what volunteers should and should not do, responsibilities of the state police have been delegated to the extent that civilian participation has gone well into the heart of front-line policing. We discuss the consequences of these blurred boundaries in terms of lack of accountability and legal uncertainty.
European Journal of Criminology, 2015
Criminology has an incomplete and imprecise understanding of the qualitative aspects of juvenile ... more Criminology has an incomplete and imprecise understanding of the qualitative aspects of juvenile co-offending. This article explores one type of juvenile crime, namely arson. Using publicly available judicial records, it analyses 60 cases of fire-setting in Sweden in which there were two or more perpetrators aged under 21 acting jointly. The resulting categorization shows the social organization of juvenile fire-setting to be centred around nine different positions that a young person can take during the planning, preparation and commission phase of an arson offence. The findings highlight the usefulness of bringing together criminological research on co-offending and juvenile fire-setting to better understand the dynamics driving and facilitating youth arson and group aspects of youth delinquency and crime more generally.
Villkor Och Vagar For Grundlaggande Yrkesutbildning Nagra Forskarperspektiv, 2001
Sociologforbundets Arsmote Halmstad 2010, 2010
Rather than adults’ indignation about today’s youth, the object of investigation in this disserta... more Rather than adults’ indignation about today’s youth, the object of investigation in this dissertation is young people’s moral rules. Rules are flexible and formable, often unclear and ambiguous, which means that they need to be interpreted in order to be usable in concrete situations. The thesis analyses young people’s moral work when they talk about violence and fighting between youths. It proceeds by distinguishing which rules they create, recreate and negotiate, which repertoires of interpretation they use, and which societal discourses they refer and relate to. The dissertation’s empirical material consists of fifteen tape-recorded and verbatim-transcribed interviews (individual, in pairs or focus-groups), with 41 young people aged 15–21, about violence and fighting. In order to place the interviewed youths’ locally anchored moral work in a broader context and obtain a basis to contrast it with, the youth’s talk is related to more general adult-dominated and public societal discourses. A limited discourse analysis of documents such as daily newspaper articles has thus been carried out. The analysis of the interviewees’ moral work is summarized in the form of a typology of young people’s fighting and violence. It shows that youths’ talk about what one may or must not do to another young person is complex, ambivalent and equivocal, and that the rules of violence are negotiable and varies with the situation and the relationship (the relative power relationship, degree of social distance and whether it is a positive or negative relationship). It also makes clear that rules are actively referred to, produced, reproduced, and negotiated in the interviews. What is made morally relevant varies between different forms of fighting and violence. In a youth fight, the beginning is important, but also how the opponent reacts and when, whether, and how one may strike the first blow or return a blow. In the moral work on play fights and sibling fights, the relationship and the purpose are given greater weight. In talk about boys’ blows, kicks and sexual offences against girls, great importance is attributed to physical strength, but also to the character of the violence—whether it is constructed as sexual or as solely physical. The interviewees set limits on what is allowed or not allowed for a young person – stranger, peer, sibling and partner – to do. Their moral work shows that social control is exercised even in the absence of adults, and that young people control themselves and each other through a host of subtle, informal social rules for violence and fighting between young people