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
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

National developments

Hate crime provisions in the Criminal Code have been amended to include transgender identity among the protected characteristics.

The Swedish Police Authority and Victim Support Sweden have worked 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 have organized training events and conferences to improve the ability of reception police officers, regional command centre staff, Police Academy students and local police officers to recognize hate crimes, in order to ensure more accurate statistics on reported hate crimes. During the training events, the Police collaborated closely with civil society working on LGBTI issues, women's rights and anti-Semitism, and with various state authorities. Furthermore, the Police continued to refine and optimize investigation work, including in collaboration with the prosecution.

The Police Advisory Board met four times in 2019, including with Roma groups/organizations, the Swedish Federation for LGBTQI Rights, Full Personality Expression Sweden and representatives of the Muslim and Jewish communities. A key objective of the Board is to increase confidence among groups targeted by hate crime.

In June 2019, the Swedish Prosecution Service organized national hate crime conferences, aimed at improving practitioners' awareness and ability to respond to hate crimes. Through a collaborative project with Victim Support Sweden, the prosecution service addressed the issue of hate crime victim support and increasing the number of reported hate crimes.

The Swedish Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority continued to sponsor several civil society organizations and provided support to victims of hate crime through its Crime Victim Fund.

INCIDENTS REPORTED BY OTHER SOURCES

Kantor Center reported only statistical data. This explains the discrepancy between the graphic above and the incidents included below.

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2019-08	Violent attacks against people	UNHCR	Show info

Anti-Roma hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2019-11	Attacks against property	OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights	Show info

Anti-Christian hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2019-06	Attacks against property	OIDAC	Show info

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime, Anti-Muslim hate crime

The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) published relevant recommendations in its "Report from the thirty-fifth session: Compilation on Sweden."

Anti-Roma hate crime

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published relevant recommendations in its 2019 Roma and Travellers Survey findings, "Roma and Travellers in six countries."