The Responsibility and Blame of Organised Crime: A Study of the Problematisation and Subject Production of Organised Criminality in National and Local Policy in Sweden
(2026) SOLM02 20261Sociology of Law Department
- Abstract
- Crime prevention in Sweden has become decentralised as the municipalities’ responsibility to contribute to the national crime preventive work has been established in law, while still being shared with the state. At the same time, national focus has shifted to organised criminality and the production of the criminal other. The aim of this thesis was to explore how these two policy developments were reflected within national and local policy documents from four
selected municipalities in southern Sweden, by studying how organised criminality was problematised in the policy documents, and what subjects were produced within the problematisations. The theoretical framework of governmentality was used to analyse the decentralisation and... (More) - Crime prevention in Sweden has become decentralised as the municipalities’ responsibility to contribute to the national crime preventive work has been established in law, while still being shared with the state. At the same time, national focus has shifted to organised criminality and the production of the criminal other. The aim of this thesis was to explore how these two policy developments were reflected within national and local policy documents from four
selected municipalities in southern Sweden, by studying how organised criminality was problematised in the policy documents, and what subjects were produced within the problematisations. The theoretical framework of governmentality was used to analyse the decentralisation and responsibilisation of crime prevention work, along with critical race theory which helped identifying hidden and subtle racial discrimination within the policy documents. The findings showed that the national and local policy documents problematised organised criminality similarly, by producing organised criminality to be multifaceted, a threat against society, and primarily located in vulnerable and socioeconomically weak areas. The produced subjects within these problematisations were primarily the criminal immigrants,
which at times overlapped with the criminal youth, and additionally produced the criminal immigrant youth as a subject of organised criminality. The similarities suggests that the national problematisations have influenced the local problematisations and steered the municipalities to act against certain areas or groups of people. The production of the criminal immigrant revealed that the policy documents showed direct and indirect signs of racial discrimination. This thesis highlights how local crime prevention reproduces national discourse and policy, despite the decentralisation of crime prevention work. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9233013
- author
- Svensson, Clara LU
- supervisor
-
- Elin Jönsson LU
- organization
- course
- SOLM02 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Organised Criminality, Decentralisation, Responsibilisation, Problematisation, Subjects, Policy
- language
- English
- id
- 9233013
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-24 14:46:29
- date last changed
- 2026-06-24 14:46:29
@misc{9233013,
abstract = {{Crime prevention in Sweden has become decentralised as the municipalities’ responsibility to contribute to the national crime preventive work has been established in law, while still being shared with the state. At the same time, national focus has shifted to organised criminality and the production of the criminal other. The aim of this thesis was to explore how these two policy developments were reflected within national and local policy documents from four
selected municipalities in southern Sweden, by studying how organised criminality was problematised in the policy documents, and what subjects were produced within the problematisations. The theoretical framework of governmentality was used to analyse the decentralisation and responsibilisation of crime prevention work, along with critical race theory which helped identifying hidden and subtle racial discrimination within the policy documents. The findings showed that the national and local policy documents problematised organised criminality similarly, by producing organised criminality to be multifaceted, a threat against society, and primarily located in vulnerable and socioeconomically weak areas. The produced subjects within these problematisations were primarily the criminal immigrants,
which at times overlapped with the criminal youth, and additionally produced the criminal immigrant youth as a subject of organised criminality. The similarities suggests that the national problematisations have influenced the local problematisations and steered the municipalities to act against certain areas or groups of people. The production of the criminal immigrant revealed that the policy documents showed direct and indirect signs of racial discrimination. This thesis highlights how local crime prevention reproduces national discourse and policy, despite the decentralisation of crime prevention work.}},
author = {{Svensson, Clara}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Responsibility and Blame of Organised Crime: A Study of the Problematisation and Subject Production of Organised Criminality in National and Local Policy in Sweden}},
year = {{2026}},
}