“It works in Denmark”- a quantitative study on Danish stop and search zones

Sammanfattning: In 2004, Denmark implemented a new law which allows the police to issue so-called “Stop & Search zones”, as a measure to defeat mainly violent crimes. In Sweden, the implementation of such zones is a current frequently occurring matter in the political debate and parliamentary motions, in the context of defeating gang crime. One common argument in favor of implementation is “It works in Denmark”. So far, no follow-ups including quantitative analysis has been published of the gang-related crime defeating or preventative nature of stop and search zones in Denmark. As the current evidence on the effectiveness of stop and search zones consists of police statements, the aim of this thesis is to provide empirical evidence as to whether stop and search zones is an effective measure to defeat gang-related crime, and more specifically violent crime. This is investigated through a Differences-in-Differences approach using municipality level data on issued “Stop & Search zones” and “violent crime” rates. By investigating this causal relationship in Denmark, this article is aimed to contribute empirical evidence to add to the discussion on Danish and Swedish stop and search zones, as well as to the academic discussion of the efficiency of suspicion-less stop and search. The results from the DiD analyses conclude that stop and search zones are not an efficient measure to reduce violent crime in Denmark, and the results are considered robust.