Offender Characteristics: A Study of 23 Violent Offenders in Sweden

Abstract

Twenty-three offenders convicted of homicide or attempted murder/manslaughter, and their respective crimes, were examined to identify any common characteristics. Court documents were assessed, and the most prominent information of the offenders was that they were often single, most of them had no psychiatric diagnoses, the most frequent modus operandi was a knife or sharp weapon (although firearms resulted in more homicides), and the most common homicide typology was domestic disputes, and disputes between friends or acquaintances. Based on a cluster analysis, two profiles emerged: one with so-called traditional criminals and another profile over-represented with offenders who commit domestic crimes. ARTICLE HISTORY

Increased Gun Violence Among Young Males in Sweden: a Descriptive National Survey and International Comparison

“…5 Rates of lethal gun victimization among males aged 15 to 29 years in 13 European countries, data from the latest 5 years with available cause-of-death statistics from WHO the risk of being a victim as well as the risk of being a perpetrator of a violent crime committed with firearms, and the increase has occurred mainly after 2007-2008. This risk is particularly pronounced in males aged 15 to 29 years (in line with prior findings by Khoshnood and Väfors Fritz 2017), and there is no corresponding increase in the risk for females. As implied by the correlation between non-lethal and lethal gun rates among males 15 to 29 years compared to all males age 30 years and older, these results are also in line with reports of young victims involved in organized crime (Savona and Mancuso 2017a).…”

“…Furthermore, a newly published short communication on the Swedish city of Malmö suggests that the increase in gun-violence is due to a changing modus operandi of criminal networks characterized by increasing gun use and easy access to guns (Khoshnood 2017). It has also been reported that guns are often used in gang homicides in Sweden (Khoshnood and Väfors Fritz 2017). It can also be noted that in Europe overall, 13% percent of homicides are committed with guns (UNODC 2013), compared to 35% in present-day Sweden (National Council for Crime Prevention 2018), indicating a comparably higher rate of gun violence in Sweden.…”

Profiling Lone-Actor Terrorists: A Cross-Sectional Study of Lone-actor Terrorists in Western Europe (2015–2016)

“…Although no single definition for criminal profiling exists and scholars have given several definitions for this concept, the objective in all definitions is similar: To provide useful information to assist law enforcement in identifying and locating offenders and detecting potential offenders. 18 Therefore, profiling is a process of drawing a possible image of a likely offender. The foundation of profiling is the belief that offenders committing similar crimes also share similar characteristics.…”

The increase of firearm-related violence in Sweden

“…In 2015, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention concluded in a report that firearm-related violence is increasing in Sweden [ 9 ], not least in south Sweden where Malmo, the country's third largest city lies. Although knife/sharp weapon remains the most common used weapon in an act of violence with respect to modus operandi , firearms have been shown to kill more [ 10 ], especially in south Sweden [ 11 ].…”