Symbols and emotions in Swedish crime policy discourse

The general public has assumed an increasingly prominent position in crime policy discourse, both in Sweden and internationally. Nowadays crime policy initiatives often acknowledge and respond to the presumed concerns of the general public, for instance through the promise of safety. This thesis analyses how political parties encourage the public to engage emotionally in crime policy matters. Since public involvement is crucial in elections, the election campaigns of political parties have served as the empirical basis of my studies. The three articles included in the thesis together examine the election campaigns in Sweden from 2006 to 2018. In this body of work, it is assumed that the emotional address of the political parties can be analysed by paying specific attention to the political use of symbols and the discursive organisation of emotions. The thesis illustrates how the welfare context influences the ways in which crime policy is communicated and legitimised in Sweden. Values and ideals associated with the welfare state and with the related notion of a ‘Nordic exceptionalism’ – such as equality, benevolence, social cohesion, trust and safety – permeate the Swedish crime policy discourse. By interpreting these values and ideals as a system of symbols, I stress the need to explore them in relation to the general public and with regards to the emotional appeal these symbols might have. In my work, I emphasise variation and contradiction regarding emotional tones and I explore the norms circumscribing emotional expressions in crime policy discourse. I have treated emotions as being present in all political communication. This suggests that emotions are not only being encouraged in the ‘hot’ emotional climate, but also in the more emotionally restrained discourse and when politicians allude to the utility of political measures. The results point towards the need to distinguish between emotions and to the exploration of the relationship between them since different emotions are associated with their distinct consequences and they influence how we are encouraged to perceive and feel for different crime policy measures. The thesis concludes that the political use of symbols and emotions should be understood as having a reassuring function. It is further suggested that symbols and emotions can be used politically both in order to limit and to promote change with regards to Swedish crime policy discourse.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.