Sweden

Sweden regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Sweden's criminal law contains a general penalty enhancement provision. Sweden includes defamation, hate speech and discrimination crimes in its data. Hate crime data are collected by the National Council for Crime Prevention and are based on information from the police and the prosecution authority. Since 2012, the number of hate crime cases is estimated based on a statistical sample of police reports. Since 2016, hate crime reports are published only every second year. Three different victimization surveys, used to measure unreported hate crime, are conducted regularly at one, two and three-year intervals, respectively.

SELECT YEAR

OFFICIAL DATA

Year	Hate crimes recorded by police	Prosecuted	Sentenced
2020	3150	334	Not available
2019	Not available	Not available	Not available
2018	5858	218	-
2017	Not available	Not available	Not available
2016	4862	257	Not available
2015	4859	255	Not available
2014	4258	279	Not available
2013	3943	161	Not available
2012	5518	344	Not available
2011	5493	347	Not available
2010	5139	440	Not available
2009	5797	450	Not available

About 2020 Data

A total of 3,709 cases were recorded by police, including 559 offences that fall outside of the OSCE definition of hate crime and are not presented here. The cases reported include crimes where hate was identified as the underlying motive. In 2020, Sweden's National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) used a different data selection methodology for hate crime statistics. Therefore, these statistics are not comparable with those submitted by Brå in previous years. Moreover, the lower figures for 2020 do not equate to a reduction in the number of reported hate crimes, but are a consequence of a change in the selection of reports reviewed by Brå.

Hate crime recorded by police

The breakdown below presents records referring to bias motivations. A number of offences involved more than one bias motivation.

By bias motivation
By type of crime

Download official data

National developments

In 2020, the Swedish Police Authority and Victim Support Sweden continued to work to enhance the skills of police officers and victim support volunteers to identify hate crimes, with the aim of increasing public confidence in the criminal justice system and reducing the number of unreported hate crimes.

The Police organized training events for local police officers to improve their capacity in responding to hate crimes, including in the area of the treatment of hate crime victims. Under the Bergslagen Mentoring Project, which is aimed at producing a handbook on hate crimes, further capacity building initiatives for police officers were implemented at regional and national levels.

The Police Advisory Board, involving, among others, members of Roma groups/organizations, the Swedish Federation for LGBTQI Rights, Full Personality Expression Sweden, and representatives of the Muslim and Jewish communities, met four times in 2020. A key objective of the Board is to increase confidence among groups targeted by hate crime.

The Malmö Police worked with the Civil Defenders NGO and the (Police-led) Anti-Democracy and Hate Crimes Group South to address anti-Roma hate crime through a study, the report on which was presented at a conference in December 2020. Throughout the project, hate crime victims were involved and the initiative allowed for the building of a dialogue between them and the police.

In May 2020, the Swedish Prosecution Service organized a hate crime webinar focusing on proving the motive behind the crime, including the investigative measures applied to detect bias motivations.

The Swedish Crime Victim Authority organized a campaign and capacity-building activities on the topic of online threats based on bias for representatives of the judiciary and civil society, and continued to sponsor several civil society organizations and provided support to victims of hate crime through its Crime Victim Fund.

The City of Gothenburg continued to develop its anti-racism plan, in consultation with the Swedish Police Authority (the Anti-Democracy and Hate Crimes Group), in order to create clear guidelines and to improve the city's role as a service provider.

INCIDENTS REPORTED BY OTHER SOURCES

In addition to incidents summarized below, this graph includes 1 hate incident reported by Kantor Center as statistics.

Anti-Semitic hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2020-08	Threats	Kantor Center	Show info

Anti-Muslim hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2020-08	Threats	OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights	Show info

Anti-Christian hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2020-11	Attacks against property	Holy See	Show info
2020-05	Attacks against property	Holy See	Show info
2020-08	Attacks against property	Holy See	Show info
2020-11	Attacks against property	Holy See	Show info
2020	Attacks against property	Holy See	Show info
2020-11	Attacks against property	Holy See	Show info
2020-12	Attacks against property	Jehovah's Witnesses	Show info
2020-07	Attacks against property	Jehovah's Witnesses	Show info
2020-07	Violent attacks against people	OIDAC	Show info
2020-08	Attacks against property	OIDAC	Show info
2020-09	Attacks against property	OIDAC	Show info
2020-02	Attacks against property	OIDAC	Show info
2020-08	Attacks against property	OIDAC	Show info
2020-11	Attacks against property	Holy See OIDAC	Show info
2020-01	Attacks against property	OIDAC	Show info
2020-09	Violent attacks against people	OIDAC	Show info

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) published relevant recommendations in its "Concluding observations on the tenth periodic report of Sweden".

Racist and xenophobic hate crime, Other hate crime based on religion or belief

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) published relevant recommendations in its "Concluding observations on the eighth report of Sweden".

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR recognizes Sweden's efforts in addressing hate crimes in a comprehensive manner as well as the submitted information on the overall hate crime situation in the country. However, based on the available information, it observes that Sweden has not reported data on hate crimes recorded by judiciary to ODIHR. Otherwise, ODIHR observes that Sweden has met most of its OSCE commitments on hate crime.

ODIHR recalls that in the Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, participating States have committed to collecting reliable data and statistics in sufficient detail on hate crimes and to reporting such crimes periodically to ODIHR. ODIHR stands ready to support Sweden in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored assistance.

Our methodology