Domstolens hantering av organiserad brottslighet -ett kriminologiskt perspektiv på samhällsattityder och deras påverkan
(2010) JURM01 20101Department of Law
- Abstract
- Organised crime is a well-discussed subject matter. There are questions regarding its structure, how widespread it is, the individuals involved with it, its crimes and the potential threat to our society it amounts to. These questions are talked about in many different arenas, in Sweden as well as internationally, and the opinions regarding organised crime are many and strong. The fight against it is widely encouraged and efforts to battle organised crime are demanded, and subsequently put in place. It is, however, not always clear what these statements, demands, and consequent campaigns against organised crime, are based on. The perceived threat is vaguely described, exactly who is behind it, and what it consists of is not explained, yet... (More)
- Organised crime is a well-discussed subject matter. There are questions regarding its structure, how widespread it is, the individuals involved with it, its crimes and the potential threat to our society it amounts to. These questions are talked about in many different arenas, in Sweden as well as internationally, and the opinions regarding organised crime are many and strong. The fight against it is widely encouraged and efforts to battle organised crime are demanded, and subsequently put in place. It is, however, not always clear what these statements, demands, and consequent campaigns against organised crime, are based on. The perceived threat is vaguely described, exactly who is behind it, and what it consists of is not explained, yet specific and powerful measures are demanded. The research concerning organised crime in Sweden that does exist is not that extensive, and above all, perhaps a bit dated as organised crime is constantly changing and evolving.
This essay focuses on organised crime in Sweden alone and how it is depicted. What are the attitudes and opinions regarding organised crime and the people involved with it in our society? I wanted to see if there are tendencies in these attitudes and in the rhetoric concerning organised crime that can be explained by criminological theories. The theories used in the essay are the theory regarding the ideal victim and the ideal perpetrator, originated by Nils Christie, and Bo Nilssons’ theory of what I believe can best be translated to something he calls the culture of insecurity.
I have also analysed four court cases with ties to organized crime, and the way the Swedish lower criminal court treated them. I wanted to look into if the way they phrased their findings, and the way they reasoned, could be seen to be affected by the views on organised crime in the general public. In short, I wanted to see if tendencies that can be explained by criminological theories could be found in the courts’ reasoning.
My findings are that I feel that the criminological theories I have mentioned can be used to explain the opinions and attitudes regarding organised crime and the people involved with it, which, in my opinion, can be found in our society. For example, organised crime is portrayed as a unified movement with a common goal or agenda. Also, the way individuals involved with organised crime are characterised, does not seem to be thoroughly established in the research that does exist, but rather based on “common knowledge”. I do not mean to suggest that criminological theory can provide a sole explanation as to why organised crime is depicted a certain way, and why society buys into it so willingly, but I do think that it can be seen as part of one. I also think that signs that the courts may have been, in part, influenced by these attitudes and opinions can be found in the expressions and reasoning in the court-cases.
I do not, however, feel that any general conclusions as to if this should be seen as a problem regarding the principle of legal security, can be made. Since I have only studied four cases, I cannot come to any conclusions regarding if this is a tendency that can be seen in courts nationwide, or if the courts have been influenced to such a degree that they have failed to observe the requirements of objectivity and impartiality stated in one of our fundamental laws, the Instrument of Government (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Organiserad brottslighet är ett väldigt aktuellt ämne som diskuteras såväl i Sverige som internationellt. Diskussionerna rör bl.a. den organiserade brottslighetens struktur, hur utbredd den är, dess medlemmar, dess kriminalitet och det hot den innebär mot samhället. Många har starka åsikter gällande organiserad brottslighet och det talas om att krafttag mot den behöver tas och olika åtgärdsprogram och satsningar inleds. Det är emellertid inte alltid helt klart vad man baserar sina uttalanden, krav och efterföljande satsningar på. Hotbilden som framställs är tämligen vag och opreciserad, men kraftfulla och riktade åtgärder krävs likväl. Forskningen på området är relativt knapp, och framförallt är den kanske inte helt aktuell, då den... (More)
- Organiserad brottslighet är ett väldigt aktuellt ämne som diskuteras såväl i Sverige som internationellt. Diskussionerna rör bl.a. den organiserade brottslighetens struktur, hur utbredd den är, dess medlemmar, dess kriminalitet och det hot den innebär mot samhället. Många har starka åsikter gällande organiserad brottslighet och det talas om att krafttag mot den behöver tas och olika åtgärdsprogram och satsningar inleds. Det är emellertid inte alltid helt klart vad man baserar sina uttalanden, krav och efterföljande satsningar på. Hotbilden som framställs är tämligen vag och opreciserad, men kraftfulla och riktade åtgärder krävs likväl. Forskningen på området är relativt knapp, och framförallt är den kanske inte helt aktuell, då den organiserade brottsligheten inte är statisk utan i ständig förändring.
Jag har i den här uppsatsen endast fokuserat på den organiserade brottsligheten i Sverige, hur den framställs, och vilka attityder och åsikter man kan se att samhället tycks ha gällande organiserad brottslighet och personer med kopplingar till den. Jag har undersökt om det går att se tendenser i dessa attityder och i retoriken kring organiserad brottslighet som kan förklaras med kriminologisk teori. De kriminologiska teorier jag har använt mig av är Nils Christies teori om det idealiska offret och den idealiska gärningsmannen, samt Bo Nilssons teori om osäkerhetskulturen.
Vidare har jag analyserat domstolarnas sätt att uttrycka sig och resonera i fyra domar som gäller brottslighet med kopplingar till organiserad brottslighet, för att se om man kan se spår av att domstolarna har påverkats av de samhällsattityder jag nämnt ovan. Jag har kort sagt undersökt om det går att se att tankegångar som kan förklaras med kriminologisk teori lyser igenom i domstolarnas resonemang.
Jag anser mig kunna finna stöd för att kriminologisk teori kan förklara de attityder och åsikter jag tycker mig se gällande organiserad brottslighet, och personer med kopplingar till den, i samhället. Den organiserade brottsligheten beskrivs exempelvis i princip som en enad rörelse med en gemensam målsättning. Även det sätt på vilket personer med kopplingar till organiserad brottslighet framställs tycks inte grundat på den forskning som faktiskt finns, utan mer på ”allmän kunskap”. Kriminologisk teori är inte nödvändigtvis den enda förklaringen till varför organiserad brottslighet framställs på ett visst sätt, och varför samhället köper denna bild, men kan enligt mig i alla fall vara en av förklaringarna.
Vad det gäller de studerade rättsfallen, tycker jag mig kunna se spår av att dessa attityder och tankar i samhället till viss del kan ha påverkat domstolarna i de resonemang som förs. Några slutsatser kring om det är ett rättssäkerhetsproblem, på så vis att det är en generell tendens som kan ses i domstolar över hela landet, eller om det påverkat domstolarna så pass mycket att de har åsidosatt de grundlagsskyddade kraven på att beakta allas likhet inför lagen samt iaktta saklighet och opartiskhet, kan jag emellertid inte dra efter att endast ha undersökt fyra domar. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1686702
- author
- Nilsson, Stina LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- JURM01 20101
- year
- 2010
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- Straffrätt
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 1686702
- date added to LUP
- 2010-09-27 16:02:32
- date last changed
- 2010-09-27 16:02:32
@misc{1686702,
abstract = {{Organised crime is a well-discussed subject matter. There are questions regarding its structure, how widespread it is, the individuals involved with it, its crimes and the potential threat to our society it amounts to. These questions are talked about in many different arenas, in Sweden as well as internationally, and the opinions regarding organised crime are many and strong. The fight against it is widely encouraged and efforts to battle organised crime are demanded, and subsequently put in place. It is, however, not always clear what these statements, demands, and consequent campaigns against organised crime, are based on. The perceived threat is vaguely described, exactly who is behind it, and what it consists of is not explained, yet specific and powerful measures are demanded. The research concerning organised crime in Sweden that does exist is not that extensive, and above all, perhaps a bit dated as organised crime is constantly changing and evolving.
This essay focuses on organised crime in Sweden alone and how it is depicted. What are the attitudes and opinions regarding organised crime and the people involved with it in our society? I wanted to see if there are tendencies in these attitudes and in the rhetoric concerning organised crime that can be explained by criminological theories. The theories used in the essay are the theory regarding the ideal victim and the ideal perpetrator, originated by Nils Christie, and Bo Nilssons’ theory of what I believe can best be translated to something he calls the culture of insecurity.
I have also analysed four court cases with ties to organized crime, and the way the Swedish lower criminal court treated them. I wanted to look into if the way they phrased their findings, and the way they reasoned, could be seen to be affected by the views on organised crime in the general public. In short, I wanted to see if tendencies that can be explained by criminological theories could be found in the courts’ reasoning.
My findings are that I feel that the criminological theories I have mentioned can be used to explain the opinions and attitudes regarding organised crime and the people involved with it, which, in my opinion, can be found in our society. For example, organised crime is portrayed as a unified movement with a common goal or agenda. Also, the way individuals involved with organised crime are characterised, does not seem to be thoroughly established in the research that does exist, but rather based on “common knowledge”. I do not mean to suggest that criminological theory can provide a sole explanation as to why organised crime is depicted a certain way, and why society buys into it so willingly, but I do think that it can be seen as part of one. I also think that signs that the courts may have been, in part, influenced by these attitudes and opinions can be found in the expressions and reasoning in the court-cases.
I do not, however, feel that any general conclusions as to if this should be seen as a problem regarding the principle of legal security, can be made. Since I have only studied four cases, I cannot come to any conclusions regarding if this is a tendency that can be seen in courts nationwide, or if the courts have been influenced to such a degree that they have failed to observe the requirements of objectivity and impartiality stated in one of our fundamental laws, the Instrument of Government}},
author = {{Nilsson, Stina}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Domstolens hantering av organiserad brottslighet -ett kriminologiskt perspektiv på samhällsattityder och deras påverkan}},
year = {{2010}},
}