The project "Social Change and Crime. A Multi-Cohort Study on Crime and the Life-Course" has been granted funding by the Swedish Research Council.

Anders Nilsson and Olof Bäckström from the Department of Criminology will lead the research project. Other researchers include Felipe Estrada and Fredrik Sivertsson from the Department of Criminology and Eva Andersson from the Department of Cultural Geography.

- We have also planned to cooperate to some extent with colleagues from Finland, England and the USA. Our idea is to start the project with an international workshop this summer where we present the new project and hopefully get good comments on our ideas, says Anders Nilsson.

What significance has it had on crime for individuals raised at different historical times?

- The project has a so-called multi-cohort approach, which means that different birth cohorts, i.e. people born in the same year, are followed over time. The oldest birth cohort in the project will consist of those born in 1975 and the youngest of those born in 2005. It is therefore about 30 cohorts that grew up during different time periods and partially different structural conditions, explains Anders Nilsson.

The final partial study of the project deals with the effects of a concrete societal change - the pandemic and its significance for young individuals' careers, with regard to crime, but also in other respects, such as e.g. establishment on the labor market. 

The project will start in 2023.