Mellan kontroll och integritet : Informationsdelning som institutionell praktik i arbetet mot välfärdsbrott

Sammanfattning

This study examines how information sharing is practiced within inter-agency collaboration aimed at combating welfare fraud, as well as the institutional and organizational factors that shape this practice. The study adopts a qualitative research approach and is based on semi-structured interviews with representatives from the Västra Götaland Region and Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå). The empirical material has been analyzed thematically, drawing on sociological and historical institutionalism. The findings show that information sharing constitutes a central prerequisite in efforts to address welfare fraud, yet is simultaneously characterized by significant tensions. These tensions primarily concern the balancing of demands for effective law enforcement with the protection of individual privacy, where confidentiality regulations and patient legislation play a particularly decisive role. The study demonstrates that, in practice, information sharing is context-dependent and in some cases person-dependent, as civil servants’ interpretations of regulations and their perceptions of risk influence how information is shared. Furthermore, the study shows that barriers to information sharing cannot be explained solely by legislation, but rather emerge from the interaction between legal frameworks, organizational structures, and institutional norms. The findings also indicate an ongoing transformation in which information sharing and collaboration are increasingly legitimized, although this development occurs unevenly across different actors. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of information sharing as an institutional practice and highlights that future reforms must take into account not only legal aspects, but also organizational and normative dimensions in order to be effective.