THE FIGHT AGAINST WELFARE CRIME IN SWEDEN. A theoretical mischaracterization of the problem?

Sammanfattning: In recent years a series of government agencies have indicated that the Swedish welfare systems are being exposed to an increasingly sophisticated and organized welfare fraud. According to the official analysis, Sweden’s problems are largely due to an inadequate ability to detect and sanction these types of crimes. Even if the government has taken extensive measures to prevent welfare crime and government agencies detect and prosecute more crimes today than previously, Sweden continues to have extensive problems with welfare fraud. According to the many government investigations released in the past decades, the reason for this is either that the measures taken have not been extensive enough or that the crime has adjusted to the new conditions. This thesis aims to investigate a third possible explanation for this puzzling development, namely that the Swedish strategy to counteract welfare fraud is based on a flawed understanding of the problem of welfare fraud and that the measures taken have thus been misguided. By conducting in-depth informant interviews with individuals who have a real insight into welfare fraud and how it manifests in Sweden this thesis finds that welfare fraud is a considerably more complex problem than proposed by the government investigations. While welfare fraud may be due to a lack of control and sanctions this is far from the only reason why Sweden is seeing such vast problems with welfare fraud. If Sweden are to overcome these issues it will take more than just effective control systems and tough sanctions.