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There is a lack of research on older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) adults. This systematic review aimed to synthesize Japanese and Swedish qualitative research on LGBTQ adults aged 60 years or older following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Japanese and Swedish articles, published in English, were searched across ASSIA, CINAHL, Medline, PsychINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and Sociological Abstracts databases. Additional searches were conducted to include studies in Japanese or Swedish. There were no papers from Japan, whereas five from Sweden were reviewed. One article was excluded due to the wrong phenomenon. Four articles were included, involving 48 participants aged 60–94 years. We summarized the findings using a deductive thematic synthesis. Two major themes emerged: (a) quality of life, minority joy, and resilience (positive aspects), and (b) discrimination, stigmatization, and minority stress (negative aspects). The participants wished to be acknowledged for their own assets and unique life histories, and to be treated as everyone else. They emphasized the importance of knowledge of LGBTQ issues among nursing staff, so that older LGBTQ people are treated in a competent and affirmative way. The study revealed several important topics for understanding older LGBTQ adults’ life circumstances and the severe lack of qualitative studies in Japan and Sweden.

Kriminalstatistiken visar att invandrare idag är överrepresenterade vid grov brottslighet i Sverige. Vad beror detta på? Är det så - i dagens mångkulturella samhälle - att avvikande kulturmönster skapar flera offer för den riktigt grova brottsligheten?

Bör traditionella kriminologiska förklaringar utifrån sociala missförhållanden, som alltid hävdats leda till kriminalitet: utanförskap, fattigdom, arbetslöshet, undermåligt boende, alkoholmissbruk och psykisk sjukdom tonas ned? I denna kvalitativa studie av rättsfall i Svea hovrätt år 2002 synliggör jur dr, universitetslektor Ann-Christine Hjelm såväl gärningsman som brottsoffer på ett sätt som inte är omedelbart möjligt med brottsstatistik. Brottsofferstudien består dels av en empirisk rättsfallsundersökning, dels av en diskussion rörande resultatets alla slagna, våldtagna och mördade kvinnor.

Rättsfallsstudien bekräftar att gärningsmän med utländsk härkomst i påfallande hög grad är överrepresenterade vid grova personbrott såsom mord och våldtäkt. Inte sällan är offren för den grova brottsligheten dels mycket unga flickor och kvinnor med utländsk härkomst, dels män i åldersgruppen 20–30 år. Samtidigt bekräftar undersökningen att en klar majoritet av gärningsmännen och en relativt stor andel av brottsoffren lever i samhällets marginaler på grund av missbruk, psykiska problem och arbetslöshet. Detta bestyrker att invandrares kriminalitet i samma utsträckning som svenskars kriminalitet har ett nära samband med socioekonomisk marginalisering.

Vidare granskas även "etnokulturella" faktorer som ett eventuellt förklaringsperspektiv genom parametrar i dagens debatt som talar om det kollektivt urskuldande, hedersrelaterade våldet, relaterat till familj och släkt. Genom rättfallsrefererat exemplifieras hur dessa hänsynstaganden används för att förklara bakgrunden till brottet i domen. Med tanke på den debatt som pågått under många år om brottslighet och utländsk härkomst uppmärksammas frågan: Är kulturgenererad grov brottslighet myt eller verklighet?

In this article, Ann-Christine Petersson Hjelm argues that the elderly care system in Sweden rests on what is described as a trust and dependence concept. In particular, it is discussed whether and in what way the interplay between trust and dependence is expressed in government committees and official documents. Interplay implies a correlation between social services personnel (trust) and the elderly (dependence). It is further stressed that the concept is a necessity, and that the impact of power – in terms of an instrument for management control – is a precondition for the elderly care system to work. It is argued that in the absence of indicative regulations, a built-in power strategy to create trust becomes necessary for the personnel. Petersson Hjelm also discuss power in terms of the elderly becoming empowered in relation to the exercise of public authority, activities or functions in elderly care by the personnel.

This thesis discusses "social engineering", in the fields of prison treatment, during the development of the Swedish Welfare State, from 1930 to 1950. The penal political ambitions were laid down under a Social Democratic government and realized in the party’s program of 1944. It is often stressed that the prison reform of 1945 marks the transition to a modern prison system. In a broader perspective of society the idea was to integrate prisoners into the Swedish welfare system. The main facet of the Act 1945 of Correctional Treatment in Prison is in the individual treatment of prisoners, based on their work in open institutions. After World War II, the number of persons incarcerated increased and this became the main symbol of the political and administrative failure of the reform.

The prison reform of 1945 marked an ideological change in the individual preventive treatment model of prisoners in Sweden. However, the establishment of a modern welfare prison was hard to accomplish and a crucial divergence emerged between what the legislation intended and what actually occurred in the prison system. This research shows the absence of an individual preventive strategy for the offenders and in that sense implementation of treatment was not successful. In this study the political and legal matters primarily originate from the archives of the Committee of Penal Law (sw. Strafflagberedningen), complemented by an empirical study, including 328 prison files from the National prison register, during the years 1938, 1943 and 1947.

This thesis shows some of the more relevant changes in prison care in relation to the prisons as a reflection of society as a whole. In some portions the study discounts the innovations of the prison reform, especially based on the fact that the Act of Correctional Treatment in Prison was a conglomerate of enacted laws and regulations. At the same time the study shows a belief in the dubious philosophy that racial biological explanations and a deterministic approach to prisoners created. In reality, the prison registers were used on prisoners as a label, which led to a diagnosis put in front of treatment.