In recent years there has been a shift in the nature of organised crime in the Nordic countries. Besides making large profits from drug trade, scams and other serious crimes, organised crime undermines the very foundations of society through illicit proceeds, corruption and violence. Furthermore, contemporary organised criminals can serve as proxies for hybrid influencing, ranging from sabotage of critical infrastructure to spreading disinformation (Europol, 2025; Muttilainen et al., 2025).
At the European level, is it reported that organised crime is increasingly destabilising society, with much of it occurring online and being driven by AI and other emerging technologies (Europol, 2025). European organised crime is increasingly utilising legal corporate structures to professionalise criminal activity, infiltrating the public sector and utilising public funds (Europol, 2025; GI-TOC, 2025).
Both Swedish and Norwegian authorities have in recent years framed organised crime as “system-threatening” (Government Offices of Sweden, 2025; Politiet, 2025), a label applied to actors from organised criminal groups, other criminal networks and violent extremist environments. What these actors have in common is that they possess intent and capability to harm or challenge the existing system, in particular the functioning of society, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights (Brå, 2025c; Gunnarson, 2023). System-threatening activity is referred to as “antagonistic threats” (e.g. Brå, 2025c), meaning “deliberately caused illegal and hostile threats” against processes, functions and structures in a society (Ekwall, 2009, p. 3).
The aforementioned changes in organised crime have aroused interest in how to secure society and public institutions from such interference. This report concentrates on one aspect within the changing landscape of organised crime, namely the unlawful influence it exerts on institutions in the justice sector.
The aim of this report is to map existing knowledge about unlawful influence by organised crime, such as threats, violence and corruption attempts, on the justice sector in the Nordic countries, as well as the preventive measures that have been implemented. The report has been produced in the project “Organised crime and undue influence: mapping Nordic knowledge”, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The project was coordinated by the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy (KRIMO) at the University of Helsinki, in collaboration with the Finnish Police University College (POLAMK), which participated in the project planning, data analysis and reporting. Moreover, Nordic researchers in the field have contributed valuably to the project by peer-reviewing the country-specific sections. As part of the project, a Nordic online network seminar with researchers and ministry officials working in the field, as well as an open final webinar, were held to facilitate knowledge-sharing on the topic across the Nordic countries.
The data collection for this report has been explorative. We conducted exploratory free-word database searches and web searches and screened webpages of Nordic governments and justice authorities for information relevant to the topic. The systematic aspect of the approach has involved identifying information related to the police, the prison and probation service, and the courts in all countries. Nordic justice authorities and researchers have contributed by providing information and directing us to relevant research for this report. The data sources used are presented at the beginning of each chapter. As most of the material used in this report is in Nordic languages, all translations are the authors’ own.
The first part of the report following this introduction outlines what is meant by unlawful influence (chapter 2), and the current state of knowledge concerning unlawful influence in the justice sector in the five Nordic countries (chapter 3–7). These chapters draw on previous research and reports on unlawful influence, supplemented by media coverage and statistics on reported offences. Systematic research specifically studying unlawful influence exists only for Sweden, while in the other countries understanding of the phenomenon relies on less precise indicators. As a result, the country-specific chapters vary in both content and length. Unlawful influence has received relatively little research. In this report, some themes may therefore rely on information from only one or a few sources. Existing studies are primarily based on victim surveys, interviews with victims or secondary data sources such as court cases. These limitations mean that both current research and this report provide only a limited perspective of the overall phenomenon. Nonetheless, this report provides a solid foundation for further investigation.
Within the justice sector, unlawful influence on the police have received the greatest attention in research and reports across the Nordic countries. Along with the prison and probation services, these two authorities are examined separately for each country. By contrast, to date there has been relatively little focus on prosecutors and courts. These authorities are therefore included only where relevant information is available.
In the second part of the report (chapter 8) strategies adopted in the different Nordic countries to counter unlawful influence are reviewed. This part is based on analyses of selected government proposals and other official documents. Finally, the report ends with a presentation of the key findings and conclusions in chapter 9.