Facts

Contact person:
Mika Hagerlid
Financer:
  • Swedish Research Council
Responsible at MaU:
Mika Hagerlid
Collaborators :
  • Görel Granström Umeå Universitet
Time frame:
01 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
Faculty/department:
Research subject:

About the project

Hate crimes are a particularly serious form of criminality that is to be prioritized by the Police Authority. Therefore, it is deeply concerning that authorities and previous research alike point to extensive deficiencies in hate crime investigation. In part, there are problems in identifying hate crimes as well as in investigating and proving that a crime is hate-based. There are few cases that reach court, and it is often difficult to discern if the hate motive has impacted the sentence as has been the intention with the legislation. For individual victims and vulnerable minority groups, this can contribute to marginalization and open doors for further radicalization. The present project has been developed in collaboration with the Police Authority and it aims to fill existing knowledge gaps and identify paths forward in a more efficient hate crime screening and investigation.

In order to meet this aim, the project draws from a unique method triangulation that includes

  1. reported hate crime identified by the police,
  2. reported hate crime identified by BRÅ,
  3. preparatory works, governmental guidelines and court cases, and finally,
  4. interviews and focus groups with key actors within the police and the justice system.

Thus, the project combines both quantitative and qualitative analyses that have proven successful in identifying successful investigation methods in previous research.