In the vast majority of cars, the parcel shelf is more a security item, too keep whatever is in the boot out of sight. Most parcel shelves are nowhere near strong enough to prevent something heavy coming forward, especially if the car rolls. Not sure about the Volvo, nor your Jeep, without seeing the shelf and this bar(?) you mention.
A very long time ago, I worked at a Saab dealer. When I started, the old classic shape 900 was still a current model. On the hatchback version of those, the parcel shelf was a rigid, cloth covered sheet of 1/2 inch plywood, so would be pretty effective at stopping stuff ending up in the cabin should you crash. When the new GM 900 came out, it had a fairly flimsy shelf of the type you find in most modern cars. It did however have a very sturdy removable bar which went across behind the top of the rear seat backs. As far as I remember, this had nothing to do with preventing stuff coming forward though, it was to provide extra stiffening to the body shell. Kind of like what a strut brace does except you could unclip it should you need to use all the available load space.
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