‘When it rains, it pours’: Housing evictions and criminal convictions in Sweden

Precarious housing and criminal behaviour are both important elements in processes of marginalization and cumulative disadvantage. It is well known that housing eviction primarily affects the weakest groups in society. In this article we ask if housing eviction has an independent effect on subsequen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alm, Susanne (Author)
Contributors: Bäckman, Olof
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2022
In: European journal of criminology
Year: 2022, Volume: 19, Issue: 4, Pages: 612-631
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
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Keywords:
Housing evictions
Administrative data
criminal convictions
Propensity score matching
Description
Summary:Precarious housing and criminal behaviour are both important elements in processes of marginalization and cumulative disadvantage. It is well known that housing eviction primarily affects the weakest groups in society. In this article we ask if housing eviction has an independent effect on subsequent criminality and if the effect varies across different types of crime (utilitarian, violent and drug crime). Using propensity score matching on administrative register data covering all housing evictions in Sweden 2009, linked with crime registers and registers containing other relevant background information, we find that eviction increases the conviction rates for all analysed crime types, utilitarian crime in particular.
ISSN:1741-2609
DOI:10.1177/1477370820905107