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. Hate crime reports are published annually. Three different victimization surveys, used to measure unreported hate crime, are conducted regularly.
How hate crime data is collected
When a crime is reported to the authorities, the police officer or civil clerk who speaks to the person reporting the crime should highlight a possible hate crime by answering a mandatory field (a tick box) in the electronic report system (RAR). The police can also specify the circumstances 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 the recording officers to, when appropriate, write a narrative report that details why the case might be a hate crime in the relevant section of the form. A guideline is also available for all police staff, both on the intranet and in a specific app on police mobile phones. During 2017 the police changed their reporting system from RAR to DurTvå (where the investigation is documented) and the new system includes a pop-up window that provides the definition of a hate crime when the officer comes to that question.
Registered bias motivations are those included in Swedish law: race, skin colour, national or ethnic background, faith, sexual orientation or transgender identity or expression. Any crime can be registered as a hate crime. The Swedish police are obligated to write a report on everything that's reported, whether it is possible to investigate the case or not. This means that it is not possible to distinguish crimes from 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 follow when a case is transferred. The prosecutorial authorities are however able to highlight hate crime cases themselves in their systems. Prosecutors have extensive guidelines on how to identify and prosecute hate crimes, published in 2016. 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.
Official Data
National developments
The Swedish police conducted an internal audit of its work against hate crimes, which led to a decision to allocate more funds to hate crime investigation. The police submitted to government a feedback report concerning hate crimes, which summarizes initiatives and results since the 2014 government decision to enhance efforts to combat hate crimes. An interactive online training programme on hate crime was developed and made accessible to all officers through police intranet, broadening the scope of professional development on hate crimes beyond the appointed specialists. A number of training events on hate crimes have been organized on a regional level by the respective police forces.
The Swedish Police and Prosecution Service's Development Centre in Malmö organized two one-day conferences on hate crime for prosecutors and police officers.
As part of the EU-funded Hate No More project, the Swedish Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority co-produced a training manual and a handbook to increase the knowledge of criminal justice professionals of hate crimes and their victims' needs. The Crime Victim Fund of the Swedish Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority sponsored a number of civil society initiatives to support victims of hate crimes from the LGBT community and other groups.
The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions and the Equality Ombudsman's Office continued collaboration, exchange of experiences and networking among local authorities in order to improve local responses to hate crimes.
International reports
No information is available.
Key observation
ODIHR observes that Sweden has not reported information on sentenced hate crime cases to ODIHR.
