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The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the police, the rescue services and the emergency medical services perceive the threat of terrorism and preparedness for a terrorist-induced crisis. It also aims to unravel differences among the emergency organizations and to discuss their potential implications for emergency preparedness.

Data were collected using a questionnaire distributed to operational personnel from the emergency services in eight Swedish counties; 864 responses were received and analysed.

There were significant differences between the police, rescue and ambulance services regarding perceptions of event likelihood, willingness to respond, estimated management capability and level of confidence with tasks to be performed on-scene. Perceived likelihood of events appeared affected by institutional logic; events within their respective domain of responsibility were perceived as more likely. The police stood out in many aspects, with more personnel with experience of violence on duty and a high grading of the probability of terrorist attacks compared to the other organizations. Fewer police had high estimates of their organizations’ management capability and knowledge of tasks on-scene.

Differences in perspectives of terrorism preparedness and response among the emergency services were shown, highlighting the importance of enabling inter-organizational insights on safety culture, with risk awareness and management strategies, as well as knowledge of the other organizations’ institutional logics and main tasks, so as to achieve an effective, collaborative response to terrorism-induced crises.

Little research has been conducted comparatively with regard to the emergency services and their perceptions of terrorism-specific threats and preparedness, particularly in the Swedish context.

This chapter explores an aspect of voluntary childlessness that has been neglected in previous research; how voluntarily childless (i.e. childfree) women engage in partnership formation processes and how they perceive that these processes become influenced by their voluntarily childless status. Drawing on interviews with 21 voluntarily childless, heterosexual, Swedish women, this chapter highlights how their childfree decision(s) impacted their partnering behaviour, their chances to form an intimate relationship and their preferences concerning partners and partnerships. The results show some of the challenges these women faced as they engaged in partnership formation processes concerning; for example, constraints in partner availability and potentially conflicting preferences regards autonomy, reproduction and intimacy. In addition, partnership formation was complicated due to a lack of communication, misunderstandings and disbelief in their childfree choices. The analysis illustrates that it was of utmost importance to these women that their intimacy goals were respected and protected during these processes but that some of them were also willing to negotiate their partner ideal. Nevertheless, this chapter ends with a discussion of relationship dissolution due to ambivalence concerning childfree choices and intimacy goals both on behalf of the childfree woman and her partner.