While it is widely known that most women convicted of crime or serving time in prison are mothers, little research has focused specifically on whether and how the daily activity of mothering affects women’s criminal behaviour. On the one hand, criminalized women often report that parenting is important to them. If mothering reduces the opportunities to engage in crime, strengthens informal controls, and increases the costs of crime, it should discourage offending. On the other hand, the challenges of mothering are particularly onerous for women who are economically disadvantaged, marginalized, and socially isolated – that is, the types of women who are most likely to engage in crime. If children create an imperative for resources that women cannot accommodate legally while simultaneously exacerbating psychological and emotional strains, women may turn to criminal behaviour. Using a sample of 259 criminalized women, I explore the mothering-crime relationship by examining whether the daily responsibilities and demands of living with children affect month-to-month changes in women’s involvement in offending. Controlling for criminalized women’s relationships, socio-economic contexts, living arrangements, and leisure pursuits, I provide quantitative evidence about the relationship between mothering and property crime, drug use, drug dealing, and women’s use of violence against their intimate partners. I supplement this analysis with qualitative evidence from in-depth interviews with these women. Results indicate a non-uniform effect of mothering on criminalized women’s offending: living with children discourages women from engaging in property crime and using drugs, makes no difference to whether or not they deal drugs or engage in ‘mutual’ violence with intimate partners, and increases their use of ‘sole’ violence against intimate partners. I discuss why living with children is an important “local life circumstance” shaping variation in criminalized women’s commission of some, but not all, offences, and consider the policy implications of these findings.

While it is widely known that most women convicted of crime or serving time in prison are mothers, little research has focused specifically on whether and how the daily activity of mothering affects women’s criminal behaviour. On the one hand, criminalized women often report that parenting is important to them. If mothering reduces the opportunities to engage in crime, strengthens informal controls, and increases the costs of crime, it should discourage offending. On the other hand, the challenges of mothering are particularly onerous for women who are economically disadvantaged, marginalized, and socially isolated – that is, the types of women who are most likely to engage in crime. If children create an imperative for resources that women cannot accommodate legally while simultaneously exacerbating psychological and emotional strains, women may turn to criminal behaviour. Using a sample of 259 criminalized women, I explore the mothering-crime relationship by examining whether the daily responsibilities and demands of living with children affect month-to-month changes in women’s involvement in offending. Controlling for criminalized women’s relationships, socio-economic contexts, living arrangements, and leisure pursuits, I provide quantitative evidence about the relationship between mothering and property crime, drug use, drug dealing, and women’s use of violence against their intimate partners. I supplement this analysis with qualitative evidence from in-depth interviews with these women. Results indicate a non-uniform effect of mothering on criminalized women’s offending: living with children discourages women from engaging in property crime and using drugs, makes no difference to whether or not they deal drugs or engage in ‘mutual’ violence with intimate partners, and increases their use of ‘sole’ violence against intimate partners. I discuss why living with children is an important “local life circumstance” shaping variation in criminalized women’s commission of some, but not all, offences, and consider the policy implications of these findings.

The purpose of this study was to examine what previous research says about children’s experiences living in a low-income family. Its aim was to found out what children themselves say about their life living in a low-income family and what consequences, practical and emotional, low-income environment has on children. More specifically our aim was to find out how children themselves experienced their situation compared with their peer’s economical situation. We also wanted to see if there were any differences between what younger and older children say about their situation. Furthermore, we wanted to find out what meaning they added to “normality” and how they related to that phenomenon. The study was based on reviews of nine qualitative studies from Sweden, England, North Ireland and USA – all published between 1998 and 2011, focusing on children and their experiences of poverty. Five themes were identified that seemed to be important for children’s experiences: life circumstances, relationships, children as actors, school and future. The analysis was based on perspective of normality, focusing how impoverished life circumstances put children in a category which deviates from majority of society. Main results demonstrate that there are big differences in how younger and older children experience their situation where older children showed more discontent and the younger children seemed more satisfied about their situation. Overall the children appear as actors which have not given up hope to change and impact their situation – there was a major will to fit in and be like other peers. As a positive aspect the study shows that relationships seemed very important for these children where friends seemed to be a good support and the family ties were strong.

The current research utilizes a multi-level analysis of historical, clinical, situational and neighbourhood factors to predict violence severity among persons with major mental illness. In addition, it draws on the typologies of offenders proposed by Moffitt (1993) and Hodgins and Janson (2002) to explore whether different predictors of violence severity exist for early-start, persistent offenders and late-start offenders. Finally, it compares early-start and late-start offenders with major mental illness to determine if differences exist in their criminal history, clinical presentation, motive for violence, crime-scene behaviours and neighbourhood backgrounds. A retrospective chart review of a mental health court support program in Toronto, Canada is utilized to explore the correlates of violence severity. Clinical charts and supplemental arrest records are content analyzed to extract data on arrestee/offender characteristics and on crime scene behaviours and tract-level data from the 2001 Canada Census is used to identify structural features of the neighbourhood environment of arrestees/offenders at the time of their arrest. Violence severity is measured using the Cormier-Lang System of Quantifying Criminal History (Quinsey, Harris, Rice, & Cormier, 1998). In total 1806 charts were reviewed and 245 subjects were subsequently included within the analyses. Using a variety of analytic techniques, the following results were obtained: 1) offense characteristics such as victim gender, victim-offender relationship, instrumental motive, and use of a weapon were the most robust predictors of violence severity while clinical factors such as diagnosis and comorbid clinical conditions were marginally significant predictors and historical factors such as previous violence and early-start offending were not significant predictors of violence severity; 2) context-specific measures accounted for more of the explained variation in violence severity than did individual-specific measures; 3) early-start and late-start offenders did differ with respect to history of violence, presence of a comorbid clinical condition such as a personality disorder or substance abuse and current life circumstances. Implications for theory refinement, clinical practice and program development are discussed and future avenues of research are considered.

The current research utilizes a multi-level analysis of historical, clinical, situational and neighbourhood factors to predict violence severity among persons with major mental illness. In addition, it draws on the typologies of offenders proposed by Moffitt (1993) and Hodgins and Janson (2002) to explore whether different predictors of violence severity exist for early-start, persistent offenders and late-start offenders. Finally, it compares early-start and late-start offenders with major mental illness to determine if differences exist in their criminal history, clinical presentation, motive for violence, crime-scene behaviours and neighbourhood backgrounds. A retrospective chart review of a mental health court support program in Toronto, Canada is utilized to explore the correlates of violence severity. Clinical charts and supplemental arrest records are content analyzed to extract data on arrestee/offender characteristics and on crime scene behaviours and tract-level data from the 2001 Canada Census is used to identify structural features of the neighbourhood environment of arrestees/offenders at the time of their arrest. Violence severity is measured using the Cormier-Lang System of Quantifying Criminal History (Quinsey, Harris, Rice, & Cormier, 1998). In total 1806 charts were reviewed and 245 subjects were subsequently included within the analyses. Using a variety of analytic techniques, the following results were obtained: 1) offense characteristics such as victim gender, victim-offender relationship, instrumental motive, and use of a weapon were the most robust predictors of violence severity while clinical factors such as diagnosis and comorbid clinical conditions were marginally significant predictors and historical factors such as previous violence and early-start offending were not significant predictors of violence severity; 2) context-specific measures accounted for more of the explained variation in violence severity than did individual-specific measures; 3) early-start and late-start offenders did differ with respect to history of violence, presence of a comorbid clinical condition such as a personality disorder or substance abuse and current life circumstances. Implications for theory refinement, clinical practice and program development are discussed and future avenues of research are considered.

This diploma thesis deals with the lifestyle of lower secondary level teachers at the basic schools in Příbram. The theoretical part, which provides the grounding for the empirical part, describes the key term of lifestyle and the selected factors which have an essential impact on the choice of lifestyle considering the influences which directly or indirectly impact the choice. The topic is a very broad one therefore this thesis focuses on the most important aspects which are the subjective and objective agents impacting lifestyle positively or negatively. The empirical part deals with the research which was conducted via a questionnaire which was constructed to obtain the information concerning the lifestyle of teachers of lower secondary level schools in Příbram. The data was then statistically evaluated. The results were compared to the current knowledge in the field. The results show that teachers are threatened by insufficient physical exercise. 66 % or the respondents stated that they do not devote any time to physical exercise, also a high percentage of the respondents stated they can recognize some signs of being stressed. On the other hand, a positive finding was the fact that 76 % of teachers eat four to five times a day and 77 % of the respondents eat fruit and vegetables. Another positive finding was the fact that over half of the respondents do not smoke and 73 % stated there are content in their current job.

Sedan början på 2000-talet har det skett en förvandling i detaljhandelslandskapet. Flera företag har valt att övergå från fysisk butik till att istället bedriva e-handel. I samband med smartphonens ökade användning har detaljhandelslandskapet förändrats ytterligare, där tekniken möjliggjort ett nytt sätt för konsumenter att förhålla sig till shopping. Smartphonen har alltså blivit ett verktyg som tillämpas i konsumenters vardag och tillkommer i flera shoppingrelaterade syften. Tidigare forskning kring mobilshopping kan delas in i två fält; forskning som fokuserar på acceptans, motiv och incitament, och sedan forskning som fokuserar på praktiker och handlingar. Med tanke på att det sistnämnda fältet är så pass outforskat, har denna studie antagit ett praktikteoretiskt perspektiv för att på ett djupare plan kunna analysera hur mobilshopping fungerar i praktiken. Syfte Syftet med vår studie är att få en bredare insikt i hur mobilshopping fungerar i praktiken genom att analysera hur konsumenter använder sin smartphone på olika sätt för att shoppa. Detta genom att anta en praktikteoretisk ansats för att analysera fenomenet mobilshopping. Metod Studien utgår från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod där 15 semistrukturerade intervjuer ligger till grund för datainsamlingen. Ytterligare har studien antagit ett praktikteoretiskt perspektiv, där sekundärdata samlats in kring praktikteori som fenomen, både praktikteori kopplat till konsumtion samt praktikteori kopplat till mobilshopping. Uppsatsen utgår således från ett urval som baseras på livssituationen hos de olika deltagarna för att på så sätt kunna se hur dessa skiljer sig åt i deras mobilshopping. Slutsats Uppsatsen visar att en praktik kan se olika ut beroende på vem som utför den då individer är unika i sitt sätt att utföra praktiken. Trots vetskapen kring detta fann vi att det finns vissa likheter mellan vissa grupper med olika livssituation, då vissa hade liknande bakomliggande meningar, brukade samma material och hade jämlik kompetensnivå i sin mobilshopping. Det resulterade i tre olika sätt att utföra mobilshopping på bland våra fem grupper, det vill säga ett målinriktat, strategiskt och vanemässigt sätt. Slutligen kan resultatet i vår studie framöver bidra till en ökad förståelse för mobilshopping som praktik. Studien ger inte bara ökad förståelse inom fältet konsumentbeteende, utan även för detaljhandlare. / Since the beginning of the 2000s, there has been a transformation in the retail landscape. Several companies have chosen to switch from a physical store to e-commerce. As the usability of the smartphone is increasing, the retail landscape is also under development, whereas technology has made it possible for a new way for consumers to pursue their shopping. Therefore, smartphones have become a tool in consumers' everyday lives and are used for several shopping-related purposes. Previous research on mobile shopping can be divided into two fields; research that focuses on acceptance, motives and incentives, and research that focuses on practices and actions. Given that the latter field is rather unexplored, this study has adopted a practice-theoretical perspective in order to be able to analyze on a deeper level how mobile shopping works in practice. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to gain a broader insight into how mobile shopping works in practice by analyzing how consumers use their smartphone in different ways to shop. This is done by adopting a practical theoretical approach to analyzing the phenomenon of mobile shopping. Method The thesis is based on a qualitative research method where 15 semi-structured interviews form the basis of our data collection. Furthermore, the study has also inducted a practice theory perspective, where secondary data is collected on practice theory as a phenomenon, practice theory linked to consumption and finally practice theory in relation to mobile shopping. The essay is thus based on a selection based on the life circumstances of the various participants and how they differ in their mobile shopping. Conclusion The thesis shows that mobile shopping as a practice can look different depending on who performs it, as individuals are unique in their way of performing the practice. Nevertheless, we found that there are certain similarities between certain groups with different life circumstances. Each group had similar underlying meanings, used the same material and had equal levels of competence in their mobile shopping practices. This resulted in three different ways of performing mobile shopping among our five groups, i.e, goal-oriented, strategic and habitual way. To sum up, the results of our study in the future can contribute to an increased understanding of mobile shopping as a practice. As well as provides increased understanding in the field of consumer behavior and thereby contribute with a clearer approach for retailers. This thesis is written in Swedish.