Background

Violence in society claims a greater number of victims that the majority of well-known public illnesses. Each year, 70,000 cases of serious violent crime – murder, manslaughter, assault, robbery and rape – are reported to the police. But the number of cases that go unrecorded is very high. The cost of violent crime is great.

A significant proportion of violent crime is linked to health issues in the form of mental illness, alcohol and drug abuse and personality disorders. We know today from several studies of both unselected birth cohorts and the total data from convicted individuals and individuals receiving forensic mental health care, that drug and alcohol abusers and those with a mental disorder run a higher risk of committing a violent crime. Over 150 human lives are lost every year as a direct result of violent crime, and violent crime is considered to be the fundamental reason behind over ten thousand trauma injuries each year within healthcare. In addition to this, there is the deep psychological suffering of the victims of violent crime, commonly life-long clinical pictures of depression, anxiety syndrome and posttraumatic stress syndrome. Accordingly, violent crime is strongly linked to ill health, both as a cause and an effect.

The goal of Karolinska Institutet is, through research, training and information, to improve health. The target formulation of the Centre for Violence Protection is:

to promote health through research,
training and information to prevent violence

There is little tradition of research and development at the authorities in Sweden which are to prevent and combat violent crime, take violent offenders into custody, make legal provisions, investigate, and provide care and rehabilitation for offenders and victims. While research and development are often referred to as one of the cornerstones of an organisation, funds made available to these ends often amount to less than one per cent.

One reason behind research and development concerning violent crime being sparse and poorly focused is the plethora of public measures to answer and manage the problem. From schools, child and adolescent psychiatry institutions, social service HVB placements (so-called 'Home for care and living' placements), and National Board of Institutional Care institutions to the police and courts, prison and probation service, state forensic mental health assessment services and county council forensic mental health care services.

CVP is a unique crossdisciplinary and interdisciplinary unit for research, training and information. The representation of perspectives from the prison and probation service, forensic mental health services, the police and many other organisations in the field of violence prevention guarantees that CVP is an applied centre.