Mid Sweden University

Using a cross-sectional survey of 1552 small and medium-sized enterprises in Sweden, we investigated the impact of crime on entrepreneurs’ attitudes and behaviors. Almost half of the respondents reported that their companies had suffered at least one crime in the prior five years. Businesses were particularly affected by theft/burglary, vandalism, invoice fraud, and cybercrime, but 24.7% of the respondents had not reported to the police the crimes committed against their companies. Entrepreneurs who employed a higher number of employees and who suffered higher economic losses were more likely to report. Many entrepreneurs indicated they lacked trust in authorities and public administration and chose to implement different crime prevention measures at their own expense. Crime also related to entrepreneurs’ opinions regarding prevention policies. Those directly affected by crime were in favor of more police patrolling the streets and tougher penalties for offenders. The results are discussed, considering the necessities and priorities in crime prevention, which must include entrepreneurs as stakeholders. 

EPUB and EPDF available open access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. How can we use evidence to improve deradicalisation and violence prevention outcomes?; Based on work developed during the implementation of the cross-European INDEED project, this is an essential reference book for practitioners, researchers and policy makers. It sets out the three pillars of best evidence-based practice - scientific evidence, professional judgement and consideration of clients' preferences, values and beliefs. Demonstrating both successful and unsuccessful approaches with case studies from the field, the book offers practical strategies for prevention teams designing and evaluating their programmes. 

Sex workers face a high level of violence as well as discrimination and stigma in regard to their profession. This chapter examines how British news media portray female sex workers when they are victims of violent and sexual crimes. The authors used discourse analysis to better understand how the victim’s status is perceived, created, or changed through the reporting of media. Four news organizations were chosen for data collection: Independent, The Guardian, Daily Mail and The Sun. Using an inductive approach, six discourses were found Victim blaming, Labelling, Media sensationalism, Vulnerability, Legitimisation, and Any woman. Nils Christie’s Ideal victim theory provided a framework to discuss the results. While Victim blaming, Labelling and Media sensationalism question the victim’s motive to be in the place of the crime, the activity the victim engaged in, and their responsibility in regard to the victimisation they suffered, Vulnerability and Legitimisation portray the victim as weak, according to the theory. Implications for victims and society are discussed.

Structured assessment of witness credibility in intimate partner violence (IPV) allegations has been well established for child custody purposes, although it is far from being systematically implemented, particularly when child custody is not at stake. Unstructured approaches may follow general, long-accepted guidelines in legal proceedings but ignore empirical knowledge about perpetrators and victims produced by years of cumulative research. Furthermore, judgments are at a high risk of being compromised by characteristics of the informant, the listener, and the situation. An accurate analysis of witness credibility is harder to accomplish and more essential when there is no conclusive evidence or when the alleged perpetrator denies the accusations and has no known history of interpersonal violence. To not believe real victims or wrongfully convict innocent individuals are miscarriages of justice that might be prevented to a certain extent if we improve credibility assessment accuracy. In this case report, I used a structured method that demonstrates how a conclusion about the credibility of an alleged victim of IPV can contrast with the conclusion produced by a trial judge. A structured credibility assessment of the alleged victim could have produced a different judgment. Implications for individuals, their families, and the justice system are discussed.

Parental alienation (PA) is a form of childhood emotional abuse in which one parent instrumentally uses the child to inflict psychological harm on the other parent for revenge. The consequences of parental alienating behaviours range from mild (e.g., the child shows a certain resistance towards visiting the targeted parent but warm parenting is still possible) to severe, where the positive affective parent–child bond is severed and extremely difficult to reinstate under family therapy. In PA processes, parenting is disrupted with the targeted parent and dysfunctional with the alienating parent. Consequently, the child is at a high risk of developing internalising (e.g., depression, anxiety) and externalising (e.g., use of drugs/alcohol, violence) problems during later developmental stages and through the lifespan. Although the prevalence and severity of PA cases in our societies are largely unknown, in part because the construct is still an ongoing debate among academics, practitioners and family justice professionals, different authors defend that it should be treated as a public health problem. Early prevention should be the primary objective and family justice, child protection and mental health services must coordinate efforts to support the families and promote the best conditions for the development of affected children.