Editorial

What a capricious year this has been. Just as the COVID-19 restrictions were being lifted across the Nordics and hopes of normality were taking hold, Russia launched a massive military invasion of Ukraine, causing a humanitarian crisis on a scale not seen in Europe since World War II. Millions of people fled their homes. Families torn apart. So many lives taken. And for what? Then came summer with its long days and celebrations at festivals, sport events and pride parades. People getting together to enjoy the good things life has to offer, even in times of crisis. But the Oslo pride parade was crushed before it got started when a man opened fire in an LGBTQ+ venue, leaving two dead and several injured. As is often the case with mass shootings, the perpetrator was a man suffering from mental health problems and with a criminal record. Soon after, another man with mental problems shot and killed three people and wounded several others, this time in a shopping mall in Copenhagen. And there have been other attacks this year, including one at Malmö Latin School. Were the perpetrators of these crimes driven by pathology, ideology, thrill-seeking or some extremist network?

In Durkheimian terms, ours is an era of collective effervescence. There is a pervasive sense of unrest, with emotions running high and social divisions growing deeper. Lots of in-group love coupled with out-group hate. Many questions are up in the air. What this calls for from us in the research community is not fast answers and rash decisions, but thorough, sympathetic scrutiny of the conditions that promote and prevent harm (Tutenges, 2023, pp. 15–17). We need to understand what is going on before passing judgements and offering solutions. The field of criminology has much to offer for understanding the present situation. For example, there is a rich tradition in criminology and related disciplines of studying the cultural logic of the narratives that drive military action and mass shootings (e.g. Presser & Sandberg, 2015; Smith, 2010). Likewise, there is a large pool of literature that examines the online and offline milieus that many of today’s violent perpetrators come from (e.g. Kalkan, 2021; Raitanen & Oksanen, 2018).

This issue of the Nordic Journal of Criminology offers seven articles based on thorough criminological research on pressing issues that mark our era. The first two articles use the restrictions put in place to counter the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to study, respectively, how students in Finland respond to an online youth crime survey when they are at home versus in school, and how the restrictions on drinking venues affected crime rates in Oslo. The third paper sheds new light on penal regimes and desistance processes in Norway through an analysis of two classic children’s books: Thorbjørn Egner’s Claus Climbermouse and the Other Animals in the Huckybucky Forest and When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town. The fourth paper compares the use of confinement and other restrictive measures against individuals in child welfare and criminal justice systems in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Article five examines risk factors for intimate partner violence among perpetrators with a native background and perpetrators with an immigrant background. Article six investigates gambling-driven economic crimes in the workplace. The last article examines narratives about bribery with a focus on how bribes are supposed to be given and received.

Welcome to this issue of the Nordic Journal of Criminology!