Combating crime and insecurity in partnership with the business community

Crime undermines the safety and quality of life for residents in a municipality. It often has major financial consequences for individuals, businesses and community leisure organisations.

Preventing crime is the responsibility of the municipality and the police – but at the same time it is in the best interests of society as a whole. Coordinated efforts make it possible to achieve better results. Historically, cooperation in crime prevention work has often entailed the police and the municipality dividing responsibilities and powers between themselves. Nowadays, it is well known that cooperation between several different actors yields better results.

In this publication, we want to highlight the role and potential of the business community in particular. Including the business community gives crime prevention work a stronger foundation, greater reach and a greater impact.

There are many good examples and proven experience of how this can work in practice. Take inspiration from this publication and use it as a starting point for getting the business community involved in your local crime prevention work.

The national crime prevention programme Tillsammans mot brott [Combating Crime Together] (2016/17:126) highlights the importance of developing common guidelines for society to prevent crime. The two main guidelines are that it must be knowledge-based and that it must be done in cooperation.
The guidelines are also reflected in the Municipal Responsibility for Crime Prevention Act (2023:196).

The Government's national strategy Barriärer mot brott [Barriers to Crime] describes a number of key areas for action to stop the recruitment of children and young people into criminal networks, prevent children and young people from becoming involved and exploited in crime, and encourage individuals who commit crime to stop their behaviour.

In the context of crime prevention, this can mainly be achieved through various types of social interventions that influence an individual’s propensity to commit crime, known as social prevention. To prevent crime, situational preventive measures also need to be taken, targeting the time, place or context in which crimes are committed. The local business community is an important and valuable partner in both social and situational crime prevention.