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• Most suicide victims were dead at the scene, and most homicide victims died during hospital care. • In suicides, stab injuries involving the heart and/or injuries considered unsurvivable (NISS 75) were more often observed. • In homicides, injuries involving vessels were more often observed. • Only suicides died of the minor injuries (NISS ≤ 8) causing pneumothorax, intraabdominal bleeding or incarcerated abdominal wall hernia. Homicides using knives or other sharp objects are the most common type of homicide in Europe, and the second most common type of homicide worldwide. In contrast, suicides using sharp objects are rarer, constituting only a few per cent of all suicides in western countries. We investigated single stab injuries to the trunk in both homicides and suicides to assess differences in extent of injuries and in medical care, which could be of value for trauma management, public health and forensic assessment. We identified all cases in Sweden between 2010 and 2021 that died of a single stab to the trunk, in either a homicide (n = 94) or a suicide (n = 45), and that were the subject of a forensic autopsy. We obtained data on demographics, hospital care and injured structures. To assess the severity of injuries, we applied AIS (Abbreviated Injury Score) and NISS (New Injury Severity Score). The inter-rater reliability of NISS between two raters was evaluated with intra-class correlation (ICC), with 95 % confidence intervals (CI). The data was analysed using Fisher's exact test, Mann-Whitney U test and logistic regression models. The inter-rater reliability between the two NISS raters showed an ICC of 0.87 (95 % CI 0.68−0.95). We observed a larger variation of injuries in suicides, with a higher proportion of both unsurvivable (NISS 75) and minor injuries (NISS ≤ 8) (66.7 % and 8.9 % respectively) compared to in homicides (46.8 % and 0 % respectively). We observed a larger proportion of injuries to the heart in suicides (68.9% vs. 46.8 %, p = 0.018). In homicides, injuries involving vessels (52.1% vs. 13.3 %, p < 0.001) and hospital care (56.4 % vs. 8.9 %, p < 0.001) were significantly more common compared to suicides. Causation (self-inflicted or assaults) seems to be associated with characteristics of injury and the likelihood of receiving hospital care. These findings could potentially be valuable for trauma management and forensic assessment of manner of death, however, determining the mortality of the injuries would require a comparison group comprising injured survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This register-based study from Sweden examines mortality risks among young male victims of violence. In total, 8722 men aged 18–24 years who spent at least one night in inpatient care after exposure to violence in the years 1992–2005 were compared with 78,702 age-matched men from the general population. Cox regressions showed that men exposed to violence had a >3 times higher risk of all-cause mortality, a >4 times higher risk of suicide, and about a 20 times higher risk of death from later violence. The risk of suicide remained stable during the follow-up, and the risk of all-cause mortality and death from later violence decreased. Abbreviations: NBHW: The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen); Brå: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses four historical time series on homicide, assault, robbery and theft from Finnish and Swedish vital and conviction (judicial) statistics. It is suggested that long-term criminal justice statistics – at least in Finland and Sweden – are highly usable and that they add relevant basic knowledge to important current criminological and crime policy issues. It is concluded that law reforms are greatly influential in terms of changes in the sanctioning system (strong evidence of policy impact); but law reforms do not contribute to lasting changes in the development of crime as measured by conviction statistics (no substantiated evidence of crime impact). In the long run, crime seems to persistently evade the manifold legislative efforts to ‘combat’ it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study was to find out the extent of the unions media coverage on workplace violence and the ways in which the topic was framed. The study shows that the reporting of violence in the workplace described in journals is on a stable level during the period 1978-98. However from the year 2000 and onwards, there is a clear increase in the attention. Four categories of workplace violence were used to identify and recognize different types of violence: intrusive-, consumer-, relationship and organizational violence. This shows that much of the attention over time has shifted from intrusive violence to organizational violence and consumer violence. What seems to have happened is that workplace violence has become more than just robberies and assaults in the retail business. The stereotypical image of the criminal is challenged by non-traditional criminals like nurses, elderly people and companies. Certain groups, e g care workers, come to account for an increasing proportion of attention, both as perpetrators and victims of violence. This study is an important step in understanding the increased reports of workplace violence in Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a summary of a book in Swedish on the development of crime (that is, violence and theft) and punishment in Sweden in a historical perspective. The data stem mostly from conviction statistics. Following a discussion of the reliability of conviction statistics, trends in these statistics are described and various criminological explanations for these trends are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clearance rate is often used as an indicator of the risk of detection, in spite of the fact that these are different matters. This article suggests a method to make estimates of the risk of detection based on information from the Swedish crime statistics. The risk of detection is expressed as a function of the dark figure. Empirical estimates of the risk are given for drunken driving, residential burglary, and assault between strangers. These estimates are followed up with some calculations concerning the impact of crime activity level on the risk of getting caught. One major conclusion of the findings is that the risk of detection varies very moderately with the dark figure. This means that if there is some knowledge of the dark figure, it is often possible to make fairly good estimates of the risk of detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]