IFFS Play

Research seminar with Jerzy Sarnecki, senior professor of criminology at Stockholm University and researcher at Institute for Futures Studies. A large number of Swedish studies show that immigrants are overrepresented among people who are registered for crime. However, the question of how immigration affects the crime level at the macro and intermediate levels has so far not been investigated. In this study, the statistics on the number of crimes reported to the police per 100,000 inhabitants are compared with the proportion of people born abroad. The comparison is made for the whole country and for 20 municipalities with high immigration and 20 municipalities with low immigration. In addition to crime, a number of indicators of socio-economic conditions are being studied. The study covers development over the past two decades. Particular attention is paid to the effects of the great wave of refugees in 2015. The results show that an increase in immigration does not to any great extent seem to affect the crime rates, either at the national or the municipal level.