This dissertation analyses discourse on benefit fraud in Sweden between 1990 and 2010. First, it maps general trends in public discourse about benefit fraud. This is done through a content analysis of news reporting about benefit fraud in four Swedish newspapers. This part of the dissertation shows that the number of published news articles about benefit fraud have increased significantly since 1990. Particularly large numbers of articles were published during the middle of the 1990s, and between 2002 and 2006.  Second, a qualitative discourse analysis of talk about benefit fraud in news texts, political debates and government reports is conducted. During periods of intense news coverage about fraud, reporting is often clearly marked by traits generally associated with moral panics; constructing the phenomenon as seemingly more common than it in reality is, constructing cheaters as a threat to the moral fiber of society, and also claiming the need for counter-measures. The qualitative analysis furthermore focuses on how the relation-ships between different subject positions are constructed in the collected material. This part of the analysis shows that fraud discourse in Sweden during the past twenty years have shifted from a dominant focus on alleged cheating among immigrants in the early 1990s, to claims of abuse within the sickness insurance program after 2002. The analysis also shows that benefit fraud is constructed as a political problem using neoliberal discursive strategies that [1] reduce welfare policies to financial costs, [2] constitute benefit claimants as individually responsible for their inability to support themselves through regular work, and [3] articulate the welfare state as an instrument for the moral regulation of citizens.

Denna kvantitativa uppsats avser att undersöka hur Covid-19 restriktioner påverkatutvecklingen av bidragsbrottsligheten i Sverige och vidare försöka förklara det resultat somobserverats med hjälp av beskrivande statistik och teoretiska förklaringsmodeller.Datamaterialet som användes består av aggregerad data på gruppnivå hämtat frånBrottsförebyggande rådet, Statistikmyndigheten SCB och Folkhälsomyndigheten. Ettdeduktivt tillvägagångssätt tillämpades med hjälp av beskrivande statistik i form avfrekvenstabeller och stapeldiagram, och kompletterades därefter med hjälp av chi-2 test.Vidare gjordes en teoretisk analys för att förklara de frekvensmönster som påvisats under denstatistiska bearbetningen.Resultaten visar på ett påtagligt frekvensmönster där bidragsbrottslighet, arbetslöshet ochekonomiskt bistånd ökat tillfälligt under 2020 när covid-19 bröt ut. Med hjälp avkriminologiska teorier om Sociala band och Strain kan studien identifiera och förklara dessaobservationer, samt resonera kring ökningen av bidragsbrottslighet som ett potentiellt resultatav covid-19 restriktioner. / The aim of this quantitative study is to examine the impact that Covid-19 restrictions havehad on the development of benefit fraud in Sweden and to further try to explain the study’sobserved results using descriptive statistics and a theoretical framework. The data materialused in the study consists of aggregated data at group level collected from The SwedishNational Council for Crime Prevention, Statistics Sweden and The Public Health Agency ofSweden. A deductive approach was applied using descriptive statistics in form of frequencytables and bar graphs, which were then supplemented using chi-2 tests. Furthermore, atheoretical analysis was conducted to explain the frequency patterns detected during thestatistical processing.The results show a noticeable frequency pattern where benefit delinquency, unemploymentand financial aid increased temporarily during 2020 when Covid-19 was most prominent.Using criminological theories consisting of Social bonding theory and Strain theory, we canidentify and explain these observations, as well as argue for the increase in benefit crime as apotential result of Covid-19 restrictions.

Bidragsbrott har på senare tid uppmärksammats som ett sätt för kriminella att finansiera den organiserade brottsligheten. Tidigare forskning har främst fokuserat på bidragsbrott mot myndigheter och det finns en kunskapslucka gällande kommunernas arbete mot bidragsbrott. Med en kvalitativ ansats undersöker denna studie bidragsbrott mot kommuner både övergripande utifrån ett nationellt perspektiv men även djupare på lokal nivå i Malmö och Helsingborgs stad. Studien syftar till att ta reda på hur arbetet för att motverka bidragsbrott upplevs samt vilken typ av samverkan som finns inom arbetet. Materialet består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med aktörer som besitter särskild kunskap om ämnet. Resultatet visade att det finns stora skillnader i hur långt olika kommuner har kommit i sitt arbete mot bidragsbrott. Vidare tyder resultatet på att det i en lokal kontext i Malmö och Helsingborgs stad finns en fungerande samverkan, men att samverkan på nationell nivå är problematiskt på grund av sekretesslagstiftning som hindrar informationsspridning mellan aktörer. Studien fann även att bidragsbrott inte är prioriterat hos polisen och att det inom myndigheten finns en kunskapsbrist gällande brottet, vilket skapar frustration hos kommunerna. Med hjälp av samverkansteori och contemporary criminology förklaras brister i samverkan och svårigheter kopplat till att bidragsbrott är ett relativt nytt fenomen. / Benefit fraud has recently attracted attention for being a way for criminals to finance organized crimes. Previous research has mainly focused on benefit fraud against authorities and there is lack of knowledge regarding benefit fraud against municipalities. A qualitative study was utilized to examine benefit fraud against municipalities in a national context as well as in a local context in the cities of Malmö and Helsingborg. The study aims to investigate how the work is experienced and what type of cooperation that exists in the work against benefit fraud. The research consists of semi-structured interviews with people who have special knowledge on the subject. The results highlighted differences in how far different municipalities have come in their work against benefit fraud. Further, it was found that the cooperations are working well in a local context in the municipalities of Malmö and Helsingborg, but the cooperation in a national context is problematic due to difficulties sharing information. The study also showed that there is a lack of priority and knowledge regarding benefit fraud amongst the police, which creates a frustration from the municipalities. Cooperation theory and contemporary criminology are used to explain shortcomings regarding cooperation as well as difficulties concerning the fact that benefit fraud is a relatively new phenomenon.