Anita Heber
About me
Professor, and Director of Studies for the Advanced Level in Criminology
Anita Heber was promoted to professor (full) in criminology in April 2024. Her main research interests are victimology, organized crime, trafficking, and crime policy. She has published articles, reports and books on these subjects, and she has led several research projects within these areas. Heber has also been teaching for two decades at both postgraduate and graduate level, she has also successfully supervised several PhD students. Her main teaching areas are qualitative and quantitative methods, criminological theory, victimology, as well as media and crime.
Research projects:
Policing Gang Desistance, Project webpage
This study brings together the two fields of policing and desistance research to analyze police-led gang desistance programs. By means of qualitative interviews and micro-ethnography, the project aims to explore on the one hand how gang desistance is understood, facilitated or counteracted by the police and practitioners, and on the other how gang desistance is perceived and experienced by gang members who participate, or have participated, in such programs. The project will produce new insights for practitioners into potential pitfalls and best practice with regard to policing desistance, and will develop a theoretical understanding of what these programs can tell us about the potentials of desistance policing in contemporary society.
Men as Victims, Project webpage
This project explores victimhood in the courtroom from three perspectives: from observations in the court room, interviews with male crime victims, and interviews with jurymen. This project is a collaboartion with Dr. Tea Fredriksson, and is financed by the Swedish Crime Victim Authority (Brottsoffermyndigheten) during 2022-2025.
The Crimes of Others
This is a collaborative project together with Dr Victor Lund Shammas, and financed by the NSfK. It studies the migration and crime debate in Norwegian and Swedish polictics. The project time is part time for one year between autumn 2020 and summer 2021.
Organised Crime
During 2015-2018, Anita was heading a three-year project called "Organised Crime on the Agenda", funded by Ragnar Söderberg Foundation. Anita worked together with prof. Ester Pollack and prof. Janne Flyghed on this project.
The Victim-Offender Overlap
As a post-doc, Anita worked on a project entitled "The Criminal as a Crime Victim". It was funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet). In this project she analyzed the victim-offender overlap through different perspectives on incarcerated criminals who were also crime victims. She published one chapter and two articles within this project, one article in the BJC.
The Fear of Crime
Her doctoral thesis, published in June 2007 by Stockholm University, analysed the fear of crime in Sweden. As a postdok she also published two articles in international journals about the altruistic fear of crime and the fear of crime and the media.
Teaching
Anita has extensive experience teaching criminology since 2002 at Stockholm University and during 2010-2012 at Södertörn University in Sweden. Currently, she is supervising two PhD students and she is currently responsible for four criminology courses:
- Victimology, 7,5 ECTS credits
- Victiminolgy online course, 7,5 ECTS credits
- Internship in Criminology, 7.5 ECTS credits, advanced level
- Media and Crime, 7,5 ECTS credits, advanced level
Visting Fellow
- 2015, Jan-July at the School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia.
- 2009, Feb-March at the Centre for Criminology, Oxford University, United Kingdom.
- 2003, Jan-July at the Department of Criminology, Keele University, United Kingdom.
Research
Publications
Heber, A. (2024). Damsels, Monster, and Superheroes: Exploring the Metanarrative of Sex Trafficking. International Review of Victimology, Vol 30 (1), pp. 89-108, https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580231195095
Heber, A. (2023). Stranger Danger: Immigrants and Crime in Swedish Politics. Critical Criminology, Vol. 31, pp.859-878,DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-023-09718-4
Fredriksson, T., Heber, A. (2023). Courtroom Performances of Masculinities and Victimhood. In: Flower, L., Klosterkamp, S. (eds) Courtroom Ethnography. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp.209-233. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37985-7_14
Heber, A. (2020). Purity or danger? The establishment of sex trafficking as a social problem in Sweden. European Journal of Criminology, 17 (4): 420-440.
Heber, A. (2019). Hur görs viktimologi? Dåtid, nutid och framtid. I: A. Heber & L. Roxell (red.) Att odla kriminologi. Perspektiv på brott & utsatthet. Festskrift till Eva Tiby, s. 55-73. Stockholm: Kriminologiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet.
Heber, A. & Roxell, L. (2019, red.). Att odla kriminologi. Perspektiv på brott & utsatthet. Festskrift till Eva Tiby. Stockholm: Kriminologiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet.
Heber, A. (2018). The hunt for an elusive crime – an analysis of Swedish measures to combat sex trafficking Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 19 (1): 3-21.
Heber, A. (2017). ‘You thought you were superman’: Violence, victimization and masculinities. British Journal of Criminology, 57 (1): 61-78.
Hermansson, K. & Heber A. (2014). Crime and punishment in Sweden. In: W.E. Jennings (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment. Wiley-Blackwell: USA.
Heber, A. (2014). Good versus Bad? Victims, offenders and victim-offenders in Swedish Crime Policy Bills. The European Journal of Criminology, 11 (4), 410-428.
Heber, A. (2012). Criminal, Crime Victim or John Smith? Constructions of Victimhood and Perpetratorship among Swedish Probationers. The International Criminal Justice Review. Special issue: Cross-Cultural and International Investigations of the Victim-Offender Overlap”, 22 (2), 171-191.
Heber, A. (2012). Brottslingen som brottsoffer. [The Criminal as a Crime Victim] In: Heber, Tiby & Wikman (eds.) Viktimologisk forskning. Brottsoffer i teori och metod. p. 179-195. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Heber, A., Tiby, E. & Wikman, S. (2012). Inledning. [Introduction] In: Heber, Tiby & Wikman (eds.) Viktimologisk forskning. Brottsoffer i teori och metod. p. 17-24. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Heber, A. (2011). Fear of crime in the Swedish daily press – descriptions of an increasingly unsafe society. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 12 (1) 63-79.
Heber, A. (2010). “The worst thing that could happen” On altruistic fear of crime. International Review of Victimology, 16, 257-275.
Baard, P., Heber, A. & Källman, L. (2010). Svenska Ekobrot. [Swedish Economic Crimes] In: P. J. Ystehede (ed.) Økonomisk Kriminalitet Nordiske Perspektiver. pp. 11-29. Oslo: Nordisk Samarbeidsråd for kriminologi.
Heber, A. (2009). Networks of organised black market labour in the building trade. Trends in Organized Crime, 12 (2), 122-145.
Heber, A. (2009). The networks of drug offenders. Trends in Organized Crime, 12 (1), 1-20.
Baard, P., Skinnari, J., Korsell, L., Weding, L. & Heber, A. (2009). Polisens möte med organiserad brottslighet. [Police Encounters with Organised Crime]. (149 p.) Sverige: Brottsförebyggande rådet (BRÅ).
Heber, A. (2008). En guide till trygghetsundersökningar. [A guide to measuring fear of crime]. Published report. (36 p.) Tryggare Mänskligare Göteborg, Göteborgs Stad.
Heber, A. (2007). Var rädd om dig! Rädsla för brott enligt forskning, intervjupersoner och dagspress. [Take care! Fear of crime in the research literature, interviews and the daily press]. Published doctoral thesis. (284 p.) Stockholm: Department of Criminology, Stockholm University.
Carlström, A.; Lantz Hedström, H. & Heber, A. (2007). Organiserat svartarbete i byggbranschen. [Organized black labour in the building sector]. (134 p.) Sweden: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ).
Sund, B., Ahrne, G., Korsell, L., Augustsson, F. & Heber, A. (2006). Part 1 in: Häleri – den organiserade brottslighetens möte med de legala marknaderna. [Fencing – The meeting between organised crime and legal markets]. (Part 1: 35 p.) Sweden: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ).
Korsell, L.; Hedlund, G.; Elwér, S.; Vesterhav, D. & Heber, A. (2006). Cultural heritage crime - The Nordic dimension. (215 p.) Sweden: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ).
Heber, A. (2005). Var rädd om dig! En litteraturöversikt om rädslan för brott. [Take care! A survey of the literature on fear of crime]. Published report. (96 p.) Stockholm: Stockholm University, Department of Criminology.
Korsell, L.; Heber, A., Sund, B. & Vesterhav, D (2005). Narkotikabrottslighetens organisationsmönster. [The organisational patterns of drug crime]. (188 p.) Sweden: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ).
Vander Beken, T. et al. (2004). Measuring organised crime in Europe. A feasability study of a risk-based methodology across the European Union. (251 p.) Belgium: Maklu Publishers.
