About us

The Department of Criminology is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences and provides education at the undergraduate, advanced and postgraduate levels. The department has about 40 employees, and the number of students registered for the undergraduate program is approximately 700.

The department conducts research in a number of different areas, such as crime development, criminal and drug policy, juvenile delinquency, corporate crime, recidivism and desistance from crime, crime prevention measures, victimization and fear of crime.

The history of the department

Stockholm University began offering Sweden’s first bachelor’s study programme in criminology in 1970. The Department of Criminology became a separate unit in 1987. However, its history, like the subject criminology itself, stretches back much further.

Stockholm University. Photo: Helen Komlos-Grill

Svenska kriminalistföreningen (The Swedish Association of Criminologists) was formed in 1911 and is still active. Föreningen Kriminologiska institutet (The Institute of Criminology Association) was founded in 1946 with the aim of creating a department of criminology at Stockholm University. The association was the brainchild of a number of high-ranking lawyers, professors, doctors, etc., all of whom had an interest in developing criminal policy on the basis of academic research.

The association worked towards the establishment of national police statistics, forming a Nordic collaborative body for criminology and a professorship in criminology. Sweden’s first professorship in the subject was set up in 1965, when Knut Sveri from the University of Oslo was appointed to the post.

The early days

   

When Knut Sveri applies for permission to make criminology a degree subject in 1969, this takes place against a background of this academic optimism. The application is justified by the need for specialist education in criminology within the correctional care and social welfare system, in the courts and in the police and prosecution authorities, and because a bachelor’s study programme would have a positive impact on research. The application is circulated for comment and all respondents approve the proposal, with the National Police Board and the Prison and Probation Service wording their responses very positively.                                                        

Stockholm University. Photo: Helene Komlos-Grill

When the criminology programme gets under way, it has over 30 students. The department remains relatively small over the course of the next 20 years, with around 50 or so full-time students. The small body of teachers and doctoral students also come from other fields.

The first thesis written by a student who had studied the criminology programme at the department appears in 1981. Many of the early theses deal with subjects focusing on the practicalities of criminal policy such as drink driving, sentencing, coercive measures, the police and crime prevention and the geographical distribution of criminality.

The department today

The Department of Criminology is still a relatively small department, but it has grown since it was founded. The department now has around 40 employees, including doctoral students. The number of students registered on the bachelor’s study programme is just over 700.

Stockholm University. Photo: Helene Komlos-Grill

The crime statistics have played a specific role in criminological research. Tabellverket (the Table Agency) was established way back in 1749, which gives Sweden the world’s oldest official statistics. Even though the earliest statistics do not specifically cover crime and punishment, they can still be used for these purposes.

Statistics covering cause of death provide an opportunity to see rates of murder and manslaughter and housing statistics show changes in the prison population. The Department of Criminology has also had a strong tradition of working with crime statistics. Hanns von Hofer’s work is one example of this.

The department’s researchers are also prominent, relatively speaking, in the national media.

Over the years, the department has actively devoted itself to teaching. Education is an important issue for the teachers. Course evaluations are followed up, the department strives to use varied forms of teaching and examination and there is a great emphasis placed on group exercises and working in smaller units. All professors have taught one or more bachelor’s courses every semester. The Department of Criminology has also earned several educational awards.