Evaluation of the K-model

The K-model is a working model used by the police that aims to prevent young
people from drinking alcohol in public places and, as an extension to this, to
contribute towards reducing juvenile violence in these environments. The model was developed by the police in Kronoberg County (hence The K-model), which is one of Sweden’s 21 Counties and also one of the 21 County Police Authorities.

The police’s own experiences and follow-ups of the model indicated that it was both possible to manage in a good way and had the capacity to reduce juvenile violence. On the basis of these experiences, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention and the Swedish National Police Board decided to test and evaluate the model.

Instead of evaluating individual ongoing trials using the model, all 21 County Police Authorities were invited to take part in a large trial in which local police districts would work using the model on the basis of a kind of protocol. The police districts were also offered training and other support for this work. One requirement for taking part in the trial was that the police in the districts had not previously working in accordance with the K-model or in a similar manner.

This invitation led to the police in seven districts in six County Police Authorities working in accordance with the method for a period each, varying between four and seven months, in 2008. The districts selected to take part were: Piteå, Sundsvall, Enköping/Håbo, Nacka, Skärholmen, Karlstad and Gotland.

The districts in which the police chose to take part differ in size and character. Two of the districts are medium-sized Swedish cities with about 95,000 (Sundsvall) and 83,000 (Karlstad) inhabitants respectively. Two of the districts are suburbs of the capital city, Stockholm, with about 120,000 (Skärholmen) and 84,000 (Nacka) inhabitants respectively. The other four districts (Håbo, Enköping, Piteå and Gotland) consist of a smaller town with a surrounding sparsely populated rural area with a total population of between about 57,000 and 19,000 inhabitants. The percentage of young people in the target group of 13 to 19 years of age in all districts is about 9 percent of the entire population, which means almost 50,000 young people in total.