The government has included the issue of hate crimes as part of the compulsory human rights and equality training for all judges. The mandatory training course is arranged by the Swedish National Courts Administration and is taken by all those training to be judges. In addition, Sweden reported a new initiative that is aimed at improving the recording of hate crimes by police in Skåne County. As part of the initiative, special hate crimes officers will be trained and designated to follow up on cases. The development of joint guidelines with prosecutors and courts is envisaged in order to increase the number of cases prosecuted.
Official figures record 2,941 racist and xenophobic crimes.
Sweden reported an estimated 4,116 hate crime reports with xenophobic/racist motives. The overall figure presented here (2,941) excludes the following incidents that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime: 559 cases of defamation; 345 of hate speech; and 166 unlawful discrimination cases.
Anti-Roma crimes (105) were also reported under this category but are presented separately in the section below.
Official data included 163 anti-Roma hate crimes. The overall figure presented here (105) excludes the following incidents that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime: 21 defamation; 13 hate speech; and 24 unlawful discrimination cases.
The NPC reported 105 hate crimes as motivated by bias against Roma and Sinti.
Official figures record 155 anti-Semitic hate crimes.
Official data included 250 anti-Semitic hate crimes. The overall figure presented here (155) excludes the following incidents that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime: 20 defamation and 75 hate speech.
Official figures record 134 crimes motivated by intolerance against Muslims.
Sweden reported 194 Islamophobic hate crimes. This number was revised to 134 after the following incidents were excluded: 21 cases of defamation, 31 of hate speech, and 8 unlawful discrimination cases.
Police reports identified 142 anti-religious crimes, of which approximately 134 were motivated by a bias against Christians.
Official data included an estimated 147 anti-Semitic hate crimes. The overall figure presented here (142) excludes cases of defamation and hate speech which do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime.
Official figures record 893 crimes motivated by bias based on sexual orientation, and further 30 hate crimes targeting transgender persons.
Sweden reported 1,060 crimes motivated by a sexual orientation-related bias. The overall figure presented here (893) excludes the following incidents that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime: 148 defamation; 14 hate speech; and 5 unlawful discrimination.
Sweden also reported 30 hate crimes targeting transgender persons. This figure includes cases of defamation, hate speech, and unlawful discrimination and is not included in the total figure.
The Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism reported 11 incidents, including two incidents where a cemetery was desecrated and two attacks against a Jewish community centre. The Stephen Roth Institute reported nine violent incidents.
The Swedish Committee against Islamophobia reported four attacks on mosques, involving two shootings and two cases of stone-throwing.
The Holy See provided figures on incidents provided by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, which, however, did not include data on the religious affiliation of the targets.