4C – The Swedish Consortium for the study of Contemporary Criminal Collaboration

The recent upswing in incidents involving firearms and explosives has led to increased attention on the prevalence and activities of criminal collaborations, such as gangs and other forms of organized crime.

However, limited knowledge about criminal collaborations, their interconnections, and the extent of their activities has impeded crime prevention policy.

To overcome these limits, 4C seeks to expand the focus beyond narrow phenomena like gun violence by generating knowledge on the formation and group dynamics of criminal collaborations; how they arise, evolve, dissolve, and draw in people.

The project aims to use a systematic informed approach to achieve four main objectives: (1) ascertain individual and societal risks and protective factors for criminal collaboration and their change over time, (2) build knowledge on the extent of criminal collaboration and its consequences for crime and society, (3) consolidate key data and methodological resources, and (4) develop a systematic knowledge base of global policies and practices to aid prevention of criminal collaborations in Sweden.

The project will be carried out through a series of interconnected research tasks organized into complementary work packages (WPs) that leverage on each other’s synergies.

The project’s outcomes will facilitate evidence-based approaches to combating the negative effects of criminal collaborations and offer guidance for future research agendas within Sweden and internationally.