Utredningarnas ändhållplats : En studie om utredares arbetsbelastning på lokalpolisområden

Previous years, have seen an increase in major crimes related to organized crime in Sweden. The number of fatal shootings is on the rise, and major crimes units have so many cases to investigate that they have had to pass on some of these to local police departments and units that normally investigate minor crimes. The research question in this paper is: how are the psychosocial working conditions for the investigators in local police departments? Karasek and Theorell’s demand, control, support model has been used to formulate interview questions and to analyze the result. The result shows that the purpose of the investigators job – to investigate in a legally secure way and to carry out justice on the behalf of the victim(s) - is an important motivation. Investigators experience a high workload and high demands. Minor crimes units receive more cases from major crimes units every month, but they cannot pass on any of their original assignments to anyone else. Normally they have high control over their everyday work, but when they must work a case where the suspect is detained, the experienced control decreases. Further, the workload is also increased. Overall, the investigators experience social support that is average. They receive support from their closest colleagues but less so from the supervisors and the attorneys