2024-10-16 12:07:00
Brå’s annual National Crime Survey (NCS) examines the attitudes and experiences of the Swedish population regarding exposure to crime, fear of crime, trust in the criminal justice system and, for victims of crime, the their contact with the criminal justice system.
It examines Swedes’ exposure to 13 different types of crime, divided into two categories, as well as how concerned people are about the level of crime in society and which particular crimes people are most concerned about.
Immigrants are less worried about crime than those born in Sweden
Half of the people who responded to the survey said they were worried about crime in society in 2024, which, while high, is three percentage points lower than the 53% of respondents who said so in 2023. However, this number has increased substantially over the years. last ten years or so – the lowest figure since the survey began was in 2011, when 27% of respondents said they were worried.
People born in Sweden, regardless of whether their parents were born in Sweden or not, were more concerned about the general level of crime in society than people born outside of Sweden.
Over half (52%) of those born in Sweden are worried about crime in society, while only 43% of those born outside Sweden say the same. The only group less concerned than immigrants about crime in society are young people between 16 and 19, of whom only a third of respondents are concerned (33%).
Announcement
In 2023, exposure to nearly all crime categories decreased
Regarding exposure to crime, the survey asked about people’s exposure in the past calendar year rather than the past 12 months, so the 2024 survey data refers to crimes that occurred in 2023.
The first category concerns crimes against the person: assaults, threats, sexual crimes, robberies, pickpocketing, sales fraud, credit fraud, harassment and online harassment.
In this category, the percentage of people exposed to these crimes was lower in 2023 than in 2022 in almost all categories, with sexual crimes seeing the largest decrease, from 4.7% in 2022 to 3.8% in 2023.
This confirms the negative trend in the number of people exposed to sexual crimes, which increased significantly between 2014 and 2018. Since then, the percentage of people affected has decreased every year, with the exception of 2022, where it increased slightly from 4, 5 at 4.7%. .
Announcement
Fraud was the only crime type in this category to increase last year. Card and credit fraud increased from 3.7 to 4.3 percent, while sales fraud increased from 6.1 percent to 6.9 percent. Sales fraud has increased every year since Brå began including it in its annual survey in 2016, while credit card fraud decreased significantly in 2020 and 2021, but has increased since then.
The most common type of crime people experienced last year was threats, while robberies were the least common, and this has been the case since Brå began its annual investigations in 2006. About a fifth ( 20.1%) of the population has suffered some type of crime in this country. category in 2023, and has remained roughly the same since 2020. Before then, the number was slightly higher.
There were only two categories of crime where more women than men were affected: sexual crimes and harassment.
Nonetheless, the number of women who suffered one of the nine crimes in this category was slightly higher than that of men (21% versus 19.1%) and this has also been true since 2006. This is mainly due to the fact that therefore many more women suffer sexual crimes than men (6.3% of women in 2023 compared to only 1% of men).
In general, young people are more likely to be victims of all these crimes, bar frauds. Men aged 16 to 19 were most likely to experience assault, while a particularly high number of women aged 20 to 24 experienced sexual offences.
The group that suffered the most fraud – both on sales and credit cards – was aged between 35 and 64 (the survey covers people aged between 16 and 84).
Announcement
What about crimes that affect an entire family?
The second category of crimes concerns those that affect an entire family: essentially property crimes such as burglaries, car thefts and car break-ins, as well as bicycle thefts.
Of the four crimes in this category, all but one decreased last year. The number of people exposed to car thefts last year decreased from 0.8 to 0.7 percent, car thefts decreased from 4 to 3.8 percent, and bicycle thefts dropped from 10 to 9 percent, 4%. In 2022 and 2023, burglaries remained unchanged at 1.2%.
In 2023, just over one in ten families – 12.1% – have been the victim of one of these crimes. Overall, this figure decreased between 2006 and 2014. Since then, it has changed only slightly, with a weak downward trend starting in 2019.
Announcement
What crimes were people most concerned about?
The survey also asked respondents whether they had worried about falling victim to various crimes in the past twelve months.
The crime that most respondents feared falling victim to was online fraud, of which 41% of women and 35% of men said they were somewhat or very concerned. The biggest discrepancy in responses between men and women was fear of rape or sexual violence, which 16% of women and only 1% of men were afraid of.
Otherwise, men and women were more or less equally worried about being victims of assault, robbery, burglary, or having their car vandalized or stolen.
The number of people who said they felt unsafe out at night in their neighborhood also declined over the past year, from 27% of respondents in 2022 to 26% in 2023.
Just over a third of women – 34% – said they felt “somewhat” or “very” unsafe, or avoided going out because of how unsafe they felt, while just under a fifth of men said the same what (18%). . This reflects a downward trend since 2020.
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