Working groups gather researchers from the Nordic countries. The working group meetings are intended for researchers planning or initiating a joint Nordic research project, or who wish to establish research related cooperation in another form. This activity was initiated around the year 2009 and is not arranged every year.

Below you find short introductions to the working groups arranged by NSfK Council members in the years 2016-2019. For reports from the earlier working groups, arranged in the years 2009-2014, please click here.

For more information on the working groups below, please click on the name of the working group.

Changing Nordic Drug Policy?
(Stockholm, 7-8 November 2019)

The five Nordic countries all have strict drug policies relying on penal legislation, police work, and imprisonment. These policies have increasingly been criticized. The policies have not delivered. At the same time a number of countries and states in the world have started to decriminalize and even legalize drugs. The Nordic countries have come under pressure, and the question can with Nils Christie be asked if there will be a retreat and if so what it will look like?

The working-group looks into the question if there are signs of changing drug policies in the Nordic countries.

Henrik Tham, professor emeritus at Stockholm University, Department of Criminology is leading the working group.

How is cybercrime defined and registered in official statistics in the Nordic Countries (Reykjavík, 15-17 October, 2018)

The aim of the working group was to open up a discussion between the Nordic countries about how cybercrime is being registered and defined and the counting rules used in the process. Thirteen participants from Iceland, Norway and Finland took part in the working group.

Council Member Ms. Rannveig Þórisdóttir, Iceland was responsible for the meeting and program.

Are Nordic Countries Getting Tough on Crime? (Helsinki, 1-2 November 2016)

The aim of the working group was to discuss and compare recent developments in crime control in the Nordic countries: are they getting tougher on crime? Has the ’refugee crisis’ had impact on these developments?

The participants gave 20-30 min presentations addressing one or more of the following questions:

• What impact has the recent changed social and political context, and the refugee crisis in particular had for criminal policy and crime control?
• What kinds of reforms, or proposals for such, have been introduced on the level of politics, policy, law-making or enforcement?
• Who have been the targets of control?
• Have these actions or initiatives for action been analyzed by researchers?

Council Member Ms. Anne Alvesalo-Kuusi, Finland was responsible for the meeting and program.

The Exploitation of Migrant Workers and its Control in the Nordic Countries and Beyond

(Helsinki 4-5 October 2016)

The Nordic countries have approached the issue of labour exploitation of migrant workers in different ways. The lack of prosections and verdicts on labour trafficking raises ia the question whether there are differences in how this phenomenon is understood, conceptualized and controlled in the Nordic countries. The issue of of how to conceptualize the distinctions between “mere” exploitation and trafficking for forced fabour was also discussed.

Council Member Ms. Natalia Ollus, Finland was responsible for the meeting and program.