

Main research and teaching areas
- Criminology
- Sousveillance and citizen journalism
- Crime and crime control in the Åland Islands
- Swedish GIRFEC models
- Security and Fear of Crime
Current research and teaching
Early coordinated interventions (TSI) for children who may be exposed to crime
The study discusses and analyzes collaboration processes in a pilot development project, an early coordinated intervention (TSI) that builds on GIRFEC. Early coordinated interventions mean that staff from schools, health care and social services collaborate to create unity around interventions for children and young people who need support from several actors. This requires that the participants develop knowledge and skills about long-term cooperation and coordination. The target group for the pilot project studied, Trygga barnet, is children and young people in the city of Malmö under the age of 16, who show early signs of what is called unfavourable development. In the pilot project, child health care, preschool, elementary school, child psychiatry and social services work together. GIRFEC is based on the idea that the activities have a common structure - common tools, professional roles and a common terminology - which should make it easier for all children and young people to be detected and to receive support early in what is described as an unfavourable development.
Prison in Finnish
The Åland Islands is a monolingual Swedish, autonomous region that belongs to Finland. All Alandic prisoners serve their sentences in Finland because there are no prisons on the Åland islands. Today, there is hardly any research that deals with crime, the police or the use of prison sentences on Åland. There are also no studies on how people who belong to the Swedish language group in Finland experience a prison sentence in a Finnish prison.
The purpose of the study is to analyze Alandic prisoners' experiences of prison sentences. Previous research shows that prisoners serving sentences far away from home, in an unfamiliar language environment, experience prison life as particularly difficult. Language problems make it difficult to communicate with prison staff and other prisoners, and the distance means that the prisoners meet family and friends very rarely.
Sousveillance and citizen journalism
Civilians film incidents with their mobile phones and spread the mobile film clips to social media and news media. This citizen journalism is often seen as a more democratic form of journalism, where the public contributes to the reporting, analysis and dissemination of news. Sousveillance, or “control from below”, takes place when the mobile phone filming is aimed at controlling control agents such as e.g., the police or security guards. However, my research shows that citizen journalism can lead to cyberbullying.
A presentation of my research on Youtube.
Teaching
I teach primarily on the first and third terms of the Criminology programme (kriminologiprogrammet) at Lund University. I also supervise bachelor theses.
Publications
Displaying of publications. Sorted by year, then title.
Yurttaş Gazeteciliği, Gözetim ve Denetim
Agneta Mallén
(2018) Panoptikon 2.0: alternatif medya ve karşi-gözetim
Book chapterNär det är Lillebror som ser. : Att använda medborgarjournalistiska videoklipp som empiri i kriminologiska studier
Agneta Mallén
(2017) Kriminologiska metoder och internet , p.102-125
Book chapterKriminologiska metoder och internet
(2017)
BookStirring up virtual punishment: a case of citizen journalism, authenticity and shaming
Agneta Mallén
(2016) Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 17 p.3-18
Journal articleWhen Baby Brother is watching: How civilians surveil control agents in the new era
Agneta Mallén
(2016)
Working paperCriminality, incarceration and control in Nordic Island societies: The Faroe Islands, The Åland Islands, Iceland and Greenland.
Agneta Mallén, Annemette Nyborg Lauritsen, Hedda Giertsen, Helgi Gunnlaugsen
(2016)
ReportVirtual punishment in the making: When citizen journalism enables processes of shaming and online victimization
Agneta Mallén
(2016)
Conference paperCitizen journalism, surveillance, and control
Agneta Mallén
(2012) Crime, security and surveillance: effects for the surveillant and the surveilled
Book chapter"It's Like Piecing Together Small Pieces of a Puzzle". Difficulties in Reporting Abuse and Neglect of Disabled Children to the Social Services
Agneta Mallén
(2011) Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 12 p.45-62
Journal articleHot och handlingsstrategier : en komparativ studie av tre bostadsområden i Örebro.
Agneta Mallén
(2010) Sociologisk Forskning, 47 p.98-100
Review"It's like putting small pieces together". Difficulties in reporting abuse and neglect of disabled children to the social services
Agneta Mallén
(2009)
Conference paperLillebror ser dig. Medborgarjournalistik, övervakning och kontroll
Agneta Mallén
(2008) Medier, brott och den aktiva publiken: om brottsrapportering och kreativ medieanvändning , p.41-60
Book chapterVäktare och våld. En studie av finska och svenska väktares berättelser om våld och hot om våld
Agneta Mallén
(2007)
Conference paperTrygghet i skärgårdsmiljö : En studie om rädsla för brott i Åboland
Agneta Mallén
(2005)
Dissertation
Collaboration
Since 2014, I have worked part-time as a Research and development Coordinator in Malmö municipality. My work in Malmö focuses on forms of collaboration between university and municipality.
Earlier research
Criminality in Nordic Island communities. In 2014-2019, I was a member of the Nordic research working group Kriminalitet, frihedsberøvelse og kontrol i nordiske ø-samfund (Criminality, detention and control in Nordic Island communities) that studied Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands. Island communities are seen as special places that both offer their inhabitants a cultural otherness and entail geographical challenges because of isolation. These features also influence on the criminality and fear of crime in island communities. The working group is financed by the Scandinavian Research Council of Criminology.
The working group is also presented on Oslo University’s website www.jus.uio.no
I have been the chair of the Nordic research working group Cybercrime victimization in the Nordic countries in 2017. The aim of the working group was to investigate possibilities for research cooperation on cybercrime victimization in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland. The working group was financed by the Scandinavian Research Council of Criminology.
Difficulties in reporting child abuse. How child habilitation staff reason when reporting violence and neglect against children with disabilities.
Security and fear of crime related to issues of victimhood: How safety can be studied with the same factors that are commonly used to analyze fear of crime.