By Heather Wolbers, Timothy Cubitt, Sarah Napier, Michael John Cahill, Mariesa Nicholas, Melanie Burton and Katherine Giunta

Sexual extortion is a form of blackmail in which a perpetrator threatens to release intimate material of a victim unless they comply with certain demands. We examine the prevalence and nature of sexual extortion among a sample of 1,953 adolescents residing in Australia.

More than one in 10 adolescents had experienced sexual extortion in their lifetime (11.3%), one in three of whom experienced more than one instance. More than half experienced sexual extortion before the age of 16, and two in five were extorted using digitally manipulated material. Two-thirds of those who experienced sexual extortion had only ever met the perpetrator online, and there were important differences in experiences between genders.

Preventing children from being sexually extorted should be a priority for social media and messaging platforms, and should be a collaborative effort across multiple sectors.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 712.

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2025. 25p.

By Grahame Allen, Helen Wong

Knife-related crime (knife crime) is a crime involving an object with a blade or sharp instrument. Knife crime data is published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), government departments, police forces and the NHS. This briefing focuses on knife crime statistics for England and Wales. Some of the statistics go up to March 2024, whereas others only go up to March 2023. Further information on knife crime in England and Wales: possession offences, rules for retailers and efforts to prevent serious violence can be found in the Library briefing: Knives, offensive weapons and serious violence

Offences involving a knife The ONS publishes data on crimes recorded by police involving a knife or sharp instrument for a selection of serious violent offences. In the year ending March 2024, there were around 50,500 offences involving a sharp instrument in England and Wales (excluding Greater Manchester). This was 4.4% higher than in 2022/23 and 2.8% lower than in 2019/20.

Homicide offences In the year ending March 2023, Home Office data shows there were 244 homicides (the killing of one person by another) using a sharp instrument, including knives and broken bottles. This meant sharp instruments were used in 41% of the 594 homicides that occurred in England and Wales in 2022/23. Knife crime by police force area ONS data shows that in 2023/24, West Midlands Police recorded the highest rate of 178 offences per 100,000 population. In contrast, Dyfed-Powys Police recorded the lowest rate of 29 offences per 100,000 population. Proven offences and offenders Sentencing statistics from the Ministry of Justice show that in the year ending March 2023, there were almost 18,500 cautions and convictions made for possession of a knife or offensive weapon. Juveniles (aged 10 to 17) were the offenders in around 17.3% of cases. Hospital admissions Police and courts crime data depends on offences being reported to the authorities; this won’t capture all instances of knife crime because some offences may not be reported. It is therefore useful to supplement this information with alternative sources such as NHS hospital data. Data from NHS Digital shows there were 3,900 “hospital episodes” recorded in English hospitals in 2023/24 due to assault by a sharp object. This was a 3.3% increase compared 2022/23, and a 7% increase compared to 2014/15. Scotland and Northern Ireland The data above are for England and Wales. Data for Scotland on the number of crimes involving the possession of an article with a blade or point can be found in table A8 of the Recorded Crime in Scotland 2023-24 publication. Table 7 of Homicide in Scotland 2023-24 shows the victims of homicide by main method of killing, including those where a sharp instrument was used.

Statistics on knife crime in Northern Ireland can be found in the latest Police Recorded Crime Statistics Monthly update from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

London: House of Commons Library, 2025. 30p.

By Dan Whitten, Eleanor Neyroud & Peter Neyroud 

Research question - 

Sexual Risk Orders (SRO) have been advocated as a means to prevent Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). This is despite significant detriment to the fundamental rights of the legally innocent and a lack of empirical assessment that can speak to preventative efficacy. This study asks; do SROs serve to prevent sexual-harm?

Data - 

The Police National Computer (PNC) was used to identify two samples of SRO subjects. Legal Services’ data from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) was used to construct a counterfactual group, for whom SRO was considered but not obtained. PNC was used to identify arrests as a proxy for offending and a harm index applied.

Methods - 

Before-after and between-group comparisons are used, along with an interrupted-time-series analysis, to assess the relationship between SRO and sexual-harm prevention. Rank-ordering of harm caused by alleged sexual-offenders in London enables an estimate of how precisely SROs are used against the highest-harm offenders.

Findings - 

SROs are associated with a significant 84.5% reduction in sexual-harm. This increases to a 93.1% reduction in the case of high-harm offenders, controlling for time incarcerated. Despite this, SROs are rarely used and are not systematically targeted against the most harmful offenders.

Conclusions - 

Within the limitations of the methodology we conclude that the evidence supports SRO use as a primary tactic to counter VAWG. Preventative impact may be maximised by increasing use, actively targeting SROs at the highest-harm offenders and considering use at an earlier stage of a subjects sexual-offending. A randomised trial is the next logical step to augment causal inference.

Camb J Evid Based Polic 9, 1 (2025, 19 p.

By Patrick Lussier and Evan McCuish

Objectives

There is empirical evidence that sexual recidivism rates have been dropping for several decades, but it remains unclear whether this drop is an artifact of changing research methodologies over the years. The current study, therefore, examines whether the sexual recidivism drop is robust while accounting for various methodological factors.

Method

The study is based on a systematic review and a quantitative meta-analysis of 468 empirical studies published between 1940 and 2019 that reported sexual recidivism rates. A total of 626 estimations (n = 388,994) of sexual recidivism were retrieved for the study period and of those, 238 were independent observations (n = 196,651). A series of sensitivity analyses were conducted using a meta-regression approach.

Results

A series of meta-regression analyses show that, even after accounting for various methodological factors (e.g., study settings, follow-up length, recidivism criteria), there has been a sexual recidivism rate drop of about 45–60% since the 1970s.

Conclusions

The study findings confirm the presence of a sexual recidivism drop while recognizing that sexual recidivism rates are sensitive to methodological details.

Journal of Criminal Justice

Volume 92, May–June 2024, 102188, p. 16

By Sandra Aguilar-Gómez and Andrea Salazar-Díaz

Every year, 245 million women are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). Climate change is hypothesized to exacerbate this figure through its disruptive impact on household livelihoods, among other channels. However, little causal evidence exists on this aspect of the climate-gender nexus, partly due to measurement challenges that have contributed to gaps in the literature. In this paper, we use three different IPV data sources to examine the effect of drought in Mexico and the role of agricultural vulnerability in intensifying these effects. We find robust evidence of increases in all measures of IPV in response to local precipitation deficits: as unanticipated exposure to days without rain in the previous month rises, more injuries linked to IPV are recorded in the public health system, police reports increase, and more 911 calls related to IPV are made. The effects are stronger in regions highly dependent on agriculture, particularly when the shock occurs during the growing season. In a country where most agricultural income and land are controlled by men, our results align with theoretical predictions from male-backlash IPV models and extractive violence models. We also find that the impact of drought on IPV is more pronounced in municipalities with low state capacity, though potential differences in reporting behavior between IPV measures complicate comparisons. Our findings underscore the need to design gender-sensitive disaster relief policies, strengthen trust in reporting mechanisms and helplines, and reduce the social acceptability of IPV

WORKING PAPER No IDB-WP-1653, Inter-American Development Bank Gender and Diversity Division . 2025. 43p.

By Kaitlyn Rines

This report summarizes law enforcement reports of sexual assault offenses for the State of Ohio during the years 2016-2023. We also summarize characteristics of crime incidents, victims and suspects. We provide sexual assault rates throughout this report, and it is important to understand how we calculated them and what they mean. First, we calculate offense totals by counting the number of sexual assault victimizations documented within each law enforcement incident report. Sexual assault victim totals do not necessarily represent unique victims. For example, law enforcement could report that a suspect sexually assaulted an individual more than once during a single incident. Further, a suspect could assault the same individual during a different incident. Therefore, it is almost certain that the sexual assault offense total is larger than the number of individuals who were victims of sexual assaults. Next, we calculate the rate of sexual assault by dividing the sexual assault total by the population total and then multiplying the resulting number (the quotient) by 100,000. This yields a sexual assault crime rate per 100,000 persons. We provide Ohio’s overall sexual assault crime rates over time, and we also compare rates of sexual assault for Ohio’s standard demographic groups (e.g., age, sex, race). Rates can vary significantly depending on how many victimizations a group experienced as well as the size of one group versus another. For example, the sexual assault crime rate is much higher for female Ohioans than males, largely because the number of female sexual assaults is much larger than male. Further, most sexual assault victims are White females because most of Ohio is White. However, Black females have the highest victimization rate because their sexual assault total is large while their overall population size is small.

Columbus:; Ohio Department of Public Safety, Office of Criminal Justice Services. 2024. 62p.

By Jennifer McDonald

Across the country, law enforcement agencies routinely seize currency from individuals using civil forfeiture—a legal process that allows agencies to take and keep property without ever charging owners with a crime, let alone securing a conviction. Studies examining civil forfeiture have found it to be a multibillion-dollar industry that punishes people without proving they have done anything wrong. This study is the first to examine how U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies—U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard—use civil forfeiture to take and keep currency from often unsuspecting travelers at airports across the country. DHS agencies are just a few of the many government agencies that conduct airport seizures, but newly available data give fresh insight into their activity. This study, covering 2000 through 2016, quantifies just how often DHS agencies have seized currency at airports—and just how much currency has flowed into the federal government’s coffers as a result.

Arlington, VA: Institute for Justice, 2020. 32p.

By United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UN Women

In this publication, the term “femicide” is used to refer to all types of gender-related killings of women and girls as described in the “Statistical framework for measuring the gender-related killing of women and girls (also referred to as “femicide/feminicide”)”.

Globally, approximately 51,100 women and girls were killed by their intimate partners or other family members during 2023. Higher than the 2022 estimate of 48,800 victims, this change is not indicative of an actual increase as it is largely due to differences in data availability at the country level. The 2023 figure means that 60 per cent of the almost 85,000 women and girls killed intentionally during the year were murdered by their intimate partners or other family members. In other words, an average of 140 women and girls worldwide lost their lives every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative...

P.18 When considering possible risk factors, it should be noted that fewer victims (11 per cent) and perpetrators (20 per cent) of femicides are under the influence of alcohol than in the case of male homicides (25 and 30 per cent respectively). Some studies point to the drug intoxication of victims as a homicidal risk factor,13 but in the case of femicides in France, this does not seem to be the case, with 3 per cent of victims and 5 per cent of perpetrators of femicide being under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime.

Vienna: UNODC, 2024. 36p.

By Rivke Jaffe

Rivke Jaffe explains how despite Jamaica’s “dons” are associated with crime and violence, they have become figures of political authority and seen as legitimate leaders.

Throughout Kingston, Jamaica, figures known as “dons” exercise political authority and are seen as legitimate leaders despite their associations with crime and violence. In the absence of strong government support, they provide impoverished residents with access to security, conflict resolution, and various forms of welfare through their own resources and connections to Jamaica’s political parties. In The Rule of Dons, Rivke Jaffe shows how dons’ power relies on a widespread belief in their right to rule, explaining how criminal power is legitimized through a set of aesthetic, affective, and spatial mechanisms. She argues that dons must credibly embody an outlaw persona that stands outside of the political establishment while also connecting strategically to state institutions and mobilizing democratic ideals such as freedom and equality. As such, dons represent a form of authority that involves balancing an autocratic form of rule

with an established democratic order. While donmanship represents a historically and culturally specific type of political authority, Jaffe’s analysis of this phenomenon offers insights into the entanglement of violent autocratic rule and democratic institutions far beyond Jamaica.

Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2024. 217p.

By Elena Marushiakova, and Vesselin Popov

In their centuries-old history, the Roma (formerly known as Gypsies) experienced many difficult moments and cruel trials from their arrival in Europe until now. The history of the Roma in the USSR is no exception in this respect. Along with affirmative state policy towards them (at least until the end of the 1930s), they also fell victim to the massive political repressions of that time. In this book, the Roma victims of these repressions are made visible and the scale of the repressions against them is discussed. The authors describe the political repression of Roma not as an isolated historical phenomenon explicitly aimed at the Roma as a separate ethnic community but understand the events as a component of the mass terror and brutal against all Soviet citizens. In this way, the history of the Roma is inscribed in the general history of the USSR.

Leiden; Boston: Brill: 2024.

Edited by Nutmeg Hallett, Richard Whittington, Dirk Richter, Emachi Eneje

This book aims to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the contexts, causes and treatments that relate to the reduction of coercion and the prevention of violence in mental health settings. The objective of this new edition in Open Access is to integrate theoretical explanations, empirical findings and practical solutions on the topic from many countries and diverse professional contexts.

A large proportion of the text is concerned with practical and applied guidance for practitioners and others based on a clear understanding of conceptual and theoretical issues. Significantly enriched by the contributions of lived experience editors and co-authors, this edition brings authentic, new perspectives that deepen its relevance and impact.

There is extensive use of case studies drawn from practice and the media to enliven the discussion. The scope of the book is intended to go beyond a reductionist medical/biological orientation on coercion and violence in mental health by integrating this within broader psychological and social frameworks. It includes new relevant contributions from nursing, psychology, psychiatry and sociology. The language of the book is clear and understandable to a broad audience whilst offering new knowledge for researchers and other specialists.

Cham Springer Nature, 436p.

By William Downs

The Labour government has committed to halving knife crime in a decade.

This briefing provides an overview of legislation concerning knives and offensive weapons, and the approaches taken by the police and other agencies to prevent serious violence in England and Wales.

What are knife crime offences? It is a criminal offence to possess any knife or other bladed article in a public place, under section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. It is also a criminal offence to have an “offensive weapon” in any public place, under section 1 of the Prevention of Crime Act 1953. Both offences carry maximum penalties of up to four years’ imprisonment. It is a defence for someone to prove they have possessed a knife, bladed article or offensive weapon with “good reason or lawful authority”, though the legislation does not provide examples of what this means in practice. A court determines whether the explanation provided by a defendant amounts to lawful authority or reasonable excuse based on the specific circumstances of a case. It is also a criminal offence to possess any prohibited weapon under section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (as amended by the Offensive Weapons Act 2019). Prohibited weapons cannot be possessed anywhere, even in private, and are also illegal to hire, lend or manufacture. Like other possession offences, the maximum penalty is four years’ imprisonment. There are currently 20 prohibited weapons listed in secondary legislation under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988, including a range of knives, bladed articles and other weapons. Under section 141(2) of the 1988 act, the government can introduce secondary legislation to add further weapons to this list. In 2024, the government added a new definition of “zombie-style” knives and machetes to the list, and launched a consultation on adding “ninja swords” to the list. Sentencing statistics from the Ministry of Justice shows that in the year ending March 2023, there were almost 18,500 cautions and convictions made for possession of a knife or offensive weapon. Juveniles (aged 10-17) were the offenders in around 17.3% of cases. Further data for England and Wales related to knife-related offences can be found in the Library briefing: Knife Crime Statistics: England and Wales.

London: House of Commons Library, 2025. 41p.

By Ernesto Lopez, Bobby Boxerman

Key Takeaways This study updates and supplements previous U.S. crime trends reports by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) with data through December 2024. It examines yearly and monthly rates of reported crime for 13 violent, property, and drug offenses in 40 American cities that have consistently reported monthly data over the past six years. The 40 cities are not necessarily representative of all jurisdictions in the United States. Not all cities published data for each offense (see the Appendix for which cities reported which offenses); trends in offenses with fewer reporting cities should be viewed with caution. Not all crimes are reported to law enforcement. In addition, the data collected for this report are subject to revision by local jurisdictions. Reported levels of 12 of the 13 offenses covered in this report were lower in 2024 than in 2023; shoplifting was the only offense higher in 2024 compared to 2023. Looking at changes in violent offenses from 2023 to 2024, the number of homicides in the 29 study cities providing data for that crime was 16% lower, representing 631 fewer homicides. There were 4% fewer reported aggravated assaults, 15% fewer gun assaults, 6% fewer sexual assaults, and 4% fewer domestic violence incidents last year than in 2023. Robbery fell by 10% while carjackings (a type of robbery) decreased by 32%. Motor vehicle theft had been on the rise from the summer of 2020 through 2023, but that trend reversed last year; there were 24% fewer motor vehicle thefts in 2024 than in 2023. Reports of residential burglaries (-13%), nonresidential burglaries (-6%), larcenies (-5%), and drug offenses (-3%) all decreased in 2024 compared to 2023. But rates of reported shoplifting, a crime that has received extensive attention from the media and policymakers, increased by 14% over the same period. Examining trends over a longer timeframe, most violent crimes are at or below levels seen in 2019, the year prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic and racial justice protests of 2020. There were 6% fewer homicides in the study cities in 2024 than in 2019. Similarly, sexual assault (-26%), domestic violence (-11%), and robbery (-19%) were lower in 2024 than in 2019. In contrast, aggravated assaults (+4%), gun assaults (+5%), and carjackings (+25%) were higher in 2024 than in 2019. Homicide rates in some high-homicide cities, including Baltimore, Detroit, and St. Louis, have dropped even further, returning to the levels of 2014, when national homicide rates were at historic lows. Rates in other cities have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels. Property crime trends have been mixed over the last five years. There were fewer residential burglaries (-38%) and larcenies (-12%) in 2024 than in 2019, but more nonresidential burglaries (+12%) and shoplifting (+1%). Motor vehicle thefts were higher by half (+53%) during the timeframe. Drug offenses in 2024 were 28% below 2019 levels. While these crime reductions are promising, the United States still experiences high levels of homicide compared to other industrialized nations, and progress should not slow local, state, federal, and community efforts to adopt comprehensive, evidencebased strategies to reduce violence. Furthermore, researchers should redouble their efforts to identify how broad behavioral shifts and other societal dynamics may affect trends.

Washington, DC: Council on Criminal Justice, 2025. 39p.

By Aaron Chalfin, Benjamin Hansen, Jason Lerner, and Lucie Parker

This paper offers experimental evidence that crime can be successfully reduced by changing the situational environment that potential victims and offenders face. We focus on a ubiquitous but surprisingly understudied feature of the urban landscape – street lighting – and report the first experimental evidence on the effect of street lighting on crime. Through a unique public partnership in New York City, temporary streetlights were randomly allocated to public housing developments from March through August 2016. We find evidence that communities that were assigned more lighting experienced sizable reductions in crime. After accounting for potential spatial spillovers, we find that the provision of street lights led, at a minimum, to a 36 percent reduction in nighttime outdoor index crimes.

NBER Working Paper No. 25798 Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2019 45p.

By Cherrell Green

While Black males are disproportionately impacted by gun homicide, they are also grossly impacted by non -fatal shootings. The impact of gun violence extends far beyond the immediate physical harm inflicted by bullets; this harm can permeate and disrupt personal relationships, create lasting psychological distress, and undermine a sense of safety within communities. However, the needs of injured Black men are often overlooked in public discourse. Despitethe prevalenceofthesetraumaticexperiencesinthe livesoflow-incomeBlackmen,theirresponseto trauma is often treated as pathology, with fewer resources devoted to addressing the adverse consequences associated with these experiences. This policy brief summarizes key findings from a study involving 18 in-person semi-structured interviews with Black men across the United States who have sustained a gunshot injury. The findings highlight the individual and institutional harm Black men with gunshot wounds (GSWs) experience at the hands of both police officers and health care providers. Consequently, this brief proposes changes designed to positively impact the lives of Black men affected by gun violence throughout the continuum of care.

San Diego: University of San Diego, Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, 2024. 27p.

Shocking videos surfaced in late August of gun-wielding Venezuelan migrants storming an apartment building in the suburban city of Aurora, Colorado. One of the migrants, a 20-year-old, confessed that he is part of a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua (TdA, or “Train from Aragua”). The Aurora police department is now beefing up its budget to confront the increased crime spilling over from the sanctuary city next door in Denver.Aurora was just the beginning. In the past 11 months, there have been increasing reports of TdA activity in no fewer than 30 major cities across America. At least 100 federal investigations involving the TdA are underway, catching most of the U.S. law enforcement community by surprise. Shooting two New York City

police officers, building sex trafficking rings in Louisiana, and murdering the Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston are just some of the high- profile violent crimes carried out by the TdA. Moreover, given that the Venezuelan government does not cooperate or provide any data on suspected criminals coming from their country into the United States, some law enforcement officers have dubbed the TdA as “ghost criminals” with little to identify them other than confessions and/ or tattoos. The Tren de Aragua has been around for more than a decade, first as a Venezuelan prison gang, then as a transnational criminal organization (TCO) spreading throughout Latin America, and now as a major street gang terrorizing cities in at least 20 states throughout America—and growing. Many comparisons have been drawn between the TdA and the transnational Salvadoran gang, La Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13). The TdA, however, is expanding much more quickly, likely due to its unique origin and state sponsorship in Venezuela. Unlike MS-13, which was born in Los Angeles in the 1980s, the TdA is foreign-born and was virtually nonexistent in America until 2021, distinct from other major TCOs such as MS-13 or the Mexican cartels. The TdA’s rapid expansion in the United States is a direct consequence of the Biden–Harris Administration’s failed immigration policies and lack of border enforcement.

KEY TAKEAWAYS The TdA’s goal is to establish territorial control and impose a criminal economy that connects illicit networks to penitentiaries in or near those neighborhoods. The new Trump Administration should work with Latin American partners to dismantle the TdA throughout the Western Hemisphere.

BACKGROUNDER No. 3876 | December 5, 2024

Washington DC: The Heritage Foundation, the Douglas ans Sarah Alison Center for National Security, 2024. 18p.

By Matthew F. Garnett and Arialdi M. Miniño

Drug overdoses are one of the leading causes of injury death in adults and have risen over the past several decades in the United States (1–3). Overdoses involving synthetic opioids (fentanyl, for example) and stimulants (cocaine and methamphetamine, for example) have also risen in the past few years (1). This report presents rates of drug overdose deaths from the National Vital Statistics System over a 20-year period by demographic group and by the type of drugs involved, specifically, opioids and stimulants, with a focus on changes from 2022 to 2023. Key findings Data from the National Vital Statistics System ● The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths increased from 8.9deaths per 100,000 standard population in 2003 to 32.6 in 2022; however, the rate decreased to 31.3 in 2023. ● Rates decreased between 2022 and 2023 for people ages 15–54 and increased for adults age 55 and older. ● From 2022 to 2023, rates decreased for White non-Hispanic people, while rates for other race and Hispanic-origin groups generally stayed the same or increased. ● Between 2022 and 2023, rates declined for deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, heroin, and natural and semisynthetic opioids, while the rate for methadone remained the same. ● From 2022 to 2023, rates increased for deaths involving cocaine by 4.9% (from 8.2 to 8.6) and psychostimulants with abuse potential by 1.9% (10.4 to 10.6)

NCHS Data Brief No. 522, December 2024. 12p.
Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2024. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc/170565.

By The Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

A mob destroyed 35-square-blocks of the African Amer i can Community during the eve - ning of May 31, through the afternoon of June 1, 1921. It was a tragic, infamous moment in Oklahoma and the nation’s history. The worst civil disturbance since the Civil War. In the aftermath of the death and destruction the people of our state suffered from a fatigue of faith — some still search for a statute of limitation on morality, attempting to forget the longevity of the residue of injustice that at best can leave little room for the healing of the heart. Perhaps this report, and subsequent humanitarian recovery events by the governments and the good people of the state will extract us from the guilt and confirm the commandment of a good and just God — leaving the deadly deeds of 1921 buried in the call for redemption, historical correctness, and re pair. Then we can proudly sing together: “We know we belong to this land. “And the land we belong to is grand, and when we say, ay yippy yi ki yea, “We’re only saying, you’re doing fine Oklahoma.” “Oklahoma, you’re O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A, Oklahoma OK.”

Oklahoma Historical Society, [Oklahoma City], 2001, 200p.

By VERED ANDRE’EV, OMAR MOHAMMED, LARA PORTNOY

Often referred to as the “world’s oldest hatred”, antisemitism, Jew-hatred, or Judeophobia has led to mass expulsions, pogroms, massacres, and the largest genocide in human history – the Holocaust. Hatred against the Jewish people can be traced across history and geography, evolving with global events, trends, and local cultures. Today, antisemitism is experiencing a worldwide revival, with the events of October 7th, 2023, and the resulting Israel-Hamas war serving as an impetus to major spikes in hateful rhetoric and violent action. Antisemitic incidents were already at historic highs; they have increased further. Antisemitism is an issue of serious concern that requires public attention and policy response. As stated in November 2022 by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), “antisemitic incidents and hate crimes violate fundamental rights, especially the right to human dignity, the right to equality of treatment and the freedom of thought, conscience and religion”. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2023, “In 2023, ADL tabulated 8,873 antisemitic incidents across the United States. This represents a 140% increase from the 3,698 incidents recorded in 2022 and is the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.” When assessing antisemitism in Arabic-speaking countries, the situation is even more disturbing. The ADL’s Global 100 survey, first launched in 2014, measures antisemitic beliefs across 100 countries, revealing notably high levels in Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with index scores reaching 74% in Saudi Arabia and 93% in the West Bank and Gaza (Weiberg, 2020). Antisemitism in the Arab world has deep historical roots, intensified by figures like Muhammad Rashid Rida in the early 20th century, who used antisemitic rhetoric in response to political Zionism. This hatred has been embedded in Arab political discourse for over a century, often framed in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, where conspiracy theories portray Jews as a global malevolent force. Islamist movements, emerging in the 1920s, have perpetuated these antisemitic views, depicting Jews as historical enemies and untrustworthy partners in peace. The legacy of antisemitism includes influential texts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which were widely disseminated in the Arab world and continue to influence perceptions today (Winter & Link, 2024).

Washington, DC: Program on Extremism at George Washington University , 2025. 35p.

By Kristin Franke Björkman and Lina Fjelkegård

Since 2021, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) has been commissioned by the Government with evaluating the initiative for 10,000 more police employees. The initiative aims to increase the number of police employees by 10,000 over the period 2016-2024 (Ju2021/02238). This is the third interim report under the assignment and focuses specifically on the investigative activities. The overarching purpose of the report is to analyse staff development and investigative results in the police's work with serious crime, especially serious crimes related to organised crime, and crime against particularly vulnerable victims during the period 2018-2023. In the study, Brå uses the Police Authority's personnel statistics and case data, interviews with heads of units and investigators, as well as a survey on the current staffing situation in the police districts’ investigative sections. In the analyses of case data, we also use the Police Authority's complexity measure, which was developed with the purpose of weighting cases according to how resource-intensive (complex) they are. The higher the value of the complexity measure (Kvalue) a case has, the more resources it requires. Delimitations In terms of staff development, the study is limited to focus specifically on Serious Crimes Investigative Units (SCUs), which are on the police district and regional organisational level, and on Domestic Violence Investigative Units (DVIUs), which are on the police district level. Investigative activities at local police district level are covered to a limited extent, and activities at national level are not included in the study at all. Trends in the inflow of cases and investigation outcomes focus on three overarching categories of offences. The first two categories, serious crimes and serious crimes related to organised crime (a subset of serious crimes), were identified empirically based on the types of crime that, according to the list of offences, shall be investigated at the police district level and are usually investigated by the SCUs. These categories include for example homicide (with or without the use of firearms), extortion, violence against a public official (police officer), arson, destruction causing public endangerment by explosion (hereafter referred to as explosions) and serious weapons offence. The fact that we selected the types of crime that the SCUs normally investigate is a delimitation that Brå has had to make in order for the study to be manageable in its scope. By including explosions and homicides with firearms, which are two of the most resource-intensive types of crime in terms of investigation, we believe that the study captures a key part of the police's investigative activities in relation to serious crime and serious organised crime. The third category, crimes against particularly vulnerable victims (SUB crimes), is the collective name for the offence code groups crimes against children, crimes in close relationships and rape against adults. This study includes those SUB crimes that, according to the list of offences, shall be investigated at police district level and are usually investigated by

the DVIUs. In addition, the study covers, to a limited extent, the investigative activities at the level of local police districts and their investigation of volume crimes, which are less complex and common types of crime such as theft, assault, and minor drug offences. The main outcome used to measure investigative performance is the proportion of cases reported to prosecutors out of all closed cases involving a preliminary investigation, which we refer to as clearance rate. Some analyses also present the number of cases reported to prosecutors. More employees in the investigative activities Within the investigative activities as a whole, the number of employees has increased by 2,900 (36%) over the period 2018-2023. However, staff growth is not evenly distributed across organisational levels, but is significantly higher at police district and regional level than at local police district level. Increased inflow of cases and high number of staff on temporary loan in Serious Crimes Over the period 2018-2023, the total inflow of serious crimes has increased by almost 30 per cent, both in terms of the number of cases and their complexity (K-value). However, the number of serious crime cases handled by the specialised Serious Crimes Investigative Units (SCUs) has remained relatively unchanged over time, while the K-value has increased. This development indicates that less complex cases have been removed from the SCUs, while a larger part of their inflow consists of the most complex serious crimes. The clear discrepancy between the increase in total inflow of cases (30%) and the unchanged inflow to the SCUs also suggests that a large and increasing number of serious crimes are handled in other parts of the organisation. This is also reflected in the increasing number of serious crime cases handled by local police districts. The number of serious crimes investigated by local police districts has increased by more than 80 per cent since 2018. Police Region Stockholm is the main driver of this development. There, the number of serious crimes investigated by local police districts has increased by almost 300 per cent. The number of employees in the SCUs has increased by 250 people, just over 30 per cent, between 2018 and 2023. The increase in staff took place mainly at the beginning and end of the period studied. Police Region Stockholm stands out with a significantly lower staff growth than the other regions (7%). Police Region Mitt has also experienced relatively low growth (17%). Growth is highest in Police Region Bergslagen (75%). Despite large regional variations, the overall picture is that despite the increase in staff, the specialised SCUs have not been able to cope with the increased influx of serious crimes. The staffing survey of the investigative sections also shows that the teams have difficulty managing the influx of cases themselves. According to the survey, almost a quarter of the SCU's staffing consists of temporarily borrowed staff.

English summary of Brå report 2024:9

Stockholm: Swedish National Council on Crime Prevention, 2024. 14p.