Stockholm university

Olof Bäckman

About me

I am a Professor of Criminology and Associate Professor of Sociology. My research concerns criminality, poverty, inequality, and social exclusion in a life-course perspective and how these processes interact with welfare state arrangements and other macro-level factors. Also causes and consqeuences of crime and reactions to crime fall within my research interests. I am involved in several research projects on these topics.

 
Recent publications
 

Al Weswasi, Enes and Olof Bäckman (2025) ‘The Effects of Replacing Incarceration with Electronic Monitoring on Crime, Mortality, and Labor Market Exclusion’. Journal of Quantitative Criminology. 41(2): 135-172https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-024-09595-2

Kahlmeter, Anna and Olof Bäckman (2025) ‘Justice by Priveilege? Social inequality in waivers of prosecution among youth’. Journal of Criminal Justicehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102497

Sivertsson, Fredrik, Mikko Aaltonen, Olof Bäckman, Pekka Martikainen, Felipe Estrada, Joonas Pitkänen, Anders Nilsson, and Karoliina Suonpää (2025) ’Two of a kind? A comparative multicohort study of juvenile violence in Finland and Sweden’. European Journal of Criminologyhttps://doi.org/10.1177/14773708251335533

Brännström, Lars and Olof Bäckman (2025) ’Vicitimization in Youth Living in Foster Family Care: Gender-Specific Prevalence and Trends 2002-2022’. Nordic Journal of Criminology. 26(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.18261/njc.26.2.5

Seker, Süheyla, Glena Hossein, Olof Bäckman, Ylva Brännström Almquist, and Lars Brännström (2025) ‘Offending and psychiatric disorders from age 20 to 63 among individuals with and without past experience of out-of-home care in Sweden: A prospective multi-trajectory cohort study’. Development and Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457942510062X

Nilsson, Anders, Olof Bäckman, Felipe Estrada and Fredrik Sivertsson (2025) ‘Social change and birth cohort differences in recorded crime: is there increasing or decreasing inequality among young offenders from different social backgrounds?’, in: Stephen Farrall and Susan McVie (eds.), Handbook on Crime and InequalityCheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Glad, Johan, Marie Berlin, Olof Bäckman, Torbjörn Forkby and Gunnel Hedman Wallin (2025) ’Rehabilitative Measures as a Legal Response for Adolescents Convicted for Drug Offences: The Swedish System’. Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugshttps://doi.org/10.1177/14550725241295469

Brännström, Lars, Marie Berlin, Olof Bäckman and Patrik Karlsson (2025) ‘Trajectories of NEET in individuals formerly placed in out of-home care: A Swedish national cohort study.’ International Journal of Social Welfare. 34(2): e12695. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12695 .

Gålnander, Robin, Olof Bäckman and Yerko Rojas (2025) ‘A Fresh Start or a False Dawn? Assessing the Crime-Preventive Effect of Debt Settlements for People with a History of Conviction’. British Journal of Criminology. 65(3): 598-617.  https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azae067.

Rojas, Yerko and Olof Bäckman (2024) ‘Parental over-indebtedness and youth crime in Swededn: a nation-wide register-based study’. International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 15(2), 47-66. https://doi.org/10.18357/ijcyfs152202422043

 

Research projects

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