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.

How hate crime data is collected in Sweden

How hate crime data is collected in Sweden

The police officer or civil clerk who receives a report of hate crime must highlight a possible hate crime by ticking a mandatory field in the electronic report system (RAR). The police can also specify the circumstances by indicating the hate crime motive in the narrative of the report. The practice varies between different police regions in Sweden, with some regions encouraging officers to provide details in the narrative report; others attach a document with information or leave comments in the reporting system.

The police training programme on hate crime instructs recording officers to write a narrative report that details why the case might be a hate crime in the relevant section of the form. Police staff can also make use of guidelines that are available on the intranet and via a dedicated app. A pop-up window providing a hate crime definition appears on the relevant question in the reporting system.

Any crime can be registered as a hate crime. Registered bias motivations are those included in Swedish law: race, skin colour, national or ethnic background, faith and sexual orientation or transgender identity or expression. The Swedish police are obliged to write up everything that is reported, regardless of whether or not it is possible to investigate the case. Thus, hate crimes cannot be distinguish from hate incidents.

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention compiles national statistics on hate crime by using specific keyword searches in their database. These numbers are not based on the cases highlighted by police as hate crimes.

The prosecutors and police systems are separate, which means that the box that the police tick to highlight potential hate crimes does not appear when a case is transferred. The prosecutorial authorities are, however, able to highlight hate crime cases in their systems. Prosecutors have extensive guidelines on how to identify and prosecute hate crimes. The Courts are not obliged to specify, either in text or in the list of which sections of the law that has been considered in the verdict, whether the penalty enhancement paragraph has been considered.

Access more information at the Legislation Online website Legislationline TANDIS Access more information at the Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Information System (TANDIS) website

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.

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
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Anti-Muslim hate crime

Date Type of incident Source Description
2020-08 Threats
OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights
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Anti-Christian hate crime

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