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Hate crimes increase in Sweden: Here’s a breakdown of the stats

The number of hate crimes reported in Sweden grew in 2018, according to new figures from the Swedish crime statistics agency. But few cases ever go to court.

Published: 31 October 2019 14:40 CET
Hate crimes increase in Sweden: Here's a breakdown of the stats

A total of 7,090 crimes reported to the police last year were identified by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) as being linked to hate motives in their latest report. 

That's an 11 percent increase compared to the last report from 2016, and 29 percent on 2013.

The motives were broken down as follows:

Xenophobic/racist: 69 percent (4,870 reports)

Sexual orientation: 11 percent (760 reports)

Islamophobic: 8 percent (560 reports)

Christianophobic: 4 percent (290 reports)

Anti-Semitic: 4 percent (280 reports)

Other anti-religious motives: 4 percent (260 reports)

Transphobic: 1 percent (80 reports)

Compared to 2016, anti-Semitic hate crimes saw the biggest increase (up by 53 percent between 2016 and 2018) followed by hate crimes linked to a person's sexual orientation (37 percent).

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The proportion of cases in relation to agitation against a population group (hets mot folkgrupp) almost doubled in the same time period, increasing from around 640 to around 1,160 offences – that's an 82 percent increase, or in other words an increase from 10 percent of all hate crimes to 16 percent.

The majority of these incidents were committed against a backdrop of Afrophobia, anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, as well as sexual orientation, said Brå in the report, which was released on Thursday.

Part of the increase is believed to be explained by several campaigns aiming to raise awareness of hate crimes committed online, which has led to more people reporting such incidents when they occur.

Violent crimes (which include homicide, assault and violence against a public servant) linked to hate crime on the other hand dropped five percent according to the report, from 810 such cases in 2016 to 772 last year.


Fifteen percent of reported offences happened on the internet, according to Brå. Photo: Naina Helén Jåma/TT

On the whole, the proportion of violent crimes compared to the total number of hate crimes has fallen from 18-21 percent in 2008-2011 to around 11-13 percent since 2015. In the same period, criminal damage/graffiti linked to hate crimes has increased from less than 11 percent to 15-16 percent from 2015 onwards.

It remains rare for hate crimes to lead to criminal charges.

The more than 6,000 reported incidents in 2016 had a person-based clearance rate – which means that a person was prosecuted or granted a waiver of prosecution – of only three percent as of June 2019.

But the clearance rate varies depending on a number of factors, for example the nature of the offence and how hard it is to investigate or link to a suspect: anti-Semitic hate crimes had a clearance rate of nine percent, while for incidents linked to anti-Roma motives, none of the suspected offences saw a person prosecuted.

Brå noted that apart from assault and unlawful threats, most of the types of offences that make up the hate crime statistics generally have a clearance rate of 0-5 percent, regardless of whether or not they are linked to hate crimes. “However, without also analysing how police and prosecutors work with the investigations, no definitive conclusions can be drawn about the reasons for the size of the clearance rate,” stated the report.

Read Brå's full report here (in Swedish) or an English summary here.

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CRIME

How the fine you get in Sweden might be based on your income

There are two main types of fines that you could be given in Sweden: fixed fines which have a set value and fines which vary in value depending on your income. Here’s how they work.

Published: 23 April 2024 14:53 CEST
How the fine you get in Sweden might be based on your income

How do fines work in Sweden?

The two most common types of fine are penningböter (a fixed amount of money) and dagsböter (which vary depending on your income and the severity of the crime committed).

There is a third type of fine, normerade böter, which are rare. These are usually calculated based on some aspect of the crime committed – like the value of an item stolen or damaged, or the horsepower of a motor involved in the crime, for example.

Who can issue these fines?

Fines in Sweden can be issued by four different authorities: the courts, the police, customs and the coast guard. 

Things like parking fines, fines for using public transport and library fines do also exist, but, legally speaking, they’re technically fees – kontrollavgifter or straffavgifter, rather than fines – böter. This is important, as true fines will leave you with a mark on your criminal record, while fees do not (although if you don’t pay them you may be issued with a black mark on your credit record).

Police and customs issue a type of penningböter (fixed fines) which are known as ordningsböter. If you’re given one of these fines and you admit to the crime straight away, then you essentially skip going through the courts and your fine is issued directly by the police instead of being issued by a judge in court. 

Ordningsböter can be issued for things like not being able to present your drivers licence or other ID when you’re driving a car (500 kronor), not having insurance on your moped (500 kronor), or antisocial behaviour in public spaces through, for example, urinating (800 kronor) or playing loud music (1,000 kronor).

As a general rule, fixed fines are issued for less serious crimes. They can vary in size from a minimum of 200 kronor to a maximum of 4,000 kronor per crime, while the maximum amount which can be issued at one time for multiple crimes is 10,000 kronor. These fines vary in size depending on the severity of the crime rather than the income of the person who has committed it.

Income-based fines or dagsböter (literally: “daily fines”) are issued for more serious crimes, like grievous bodily harm, theft, animal abuse, damage to property or taking pictures of classified buildings, so you’re not going to be issued one just for driving slightly over the speed limit.

How are dagsböter calculated?

They’re made up of two numbers. The first is the amount of fines issued, which varies depending on the severity of the crime (between 30 and 150, or 200 if they are being sentenced to fines for multiple crimes at once), and the second is the value of each fine, which depends on the income of the person charged, but must be between 50 and 1,000 kronor.

This means that the lowest possible daily fine is 30 fines of 50 kronor each, or 1,500 kronor, while the highest is 200 fines of 1,000 kronor each, or 200,000 kronor.

As a general rule, one daily fine is meant to be equivalent to one thousandth of the yearly income of the person charged, taking into account other aspects of their personal finances like debts, savings and anyone else they have to support financially. This means that two people committing the same crime can be sentenced to different fines.

Let’s say two people get in a fight and are sentenced to 80 daily fines each. The first one has no income, so their fine value is set at the minimum (50 kronor per daily fine) meaning they pay a total of 4,000 kronor. The other has a high yearly income, so their daily fine is set to 500 kronor, putting their total fine at 40,000 kronor, despite being sentenced for exactly the same crime.

Despite the name, daily fines are not paid by day, but they’re paid as a lump sum within 30 days from the date at which the sentence becomes legally binding. If the perpetrator of a fine refuses to pay, their fine will be passed on to the Enforcement Agency (Kronofogden), who have the power to seize and sell their assets to cover it.

If they refuse to pay the fine despite being financially able to, they can be sentenced to prison for anywhere between two weeks to three months.

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