The study has generated an overview of how Swedish Police work with welfare crime and in particular those relating to the benefit system. An inductive approach has been applied and the findings have been discussed and analysed using the rational choice theory and Kahl´s hypothesis. Literature have been reviewed and through a snowball method interviews have been conducted with members of the police force as well as civil servants from relevant authorities. The interviews have been conducted in different parts of the country. The police strategy, working methods and tools are discussed as so far, they have been possible to identify. The conclusion is that there is a need to look at welfare crime from the perspective of groupness to avoid state exploitation. This would mean a change from the current strategy aimed at the setting of a crime originate in the crime analysis triangle concept to a social perspective. A secondary consequence would be that the strategy of united action between authorities and police which is already in place needs to further development and include a wider range of stakeholders to ensure effective crime prevention.

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.