Hate crimes with racist, anti-Semitic or Islamophobic motives were identified in 2813 cases in 2007

Alert DateDecember 26, 2011 Country: Sweden Address: Stockholm Racism and discrimination phenomena: Extremism - organised Racist Violence, Anti-migrant/xenophobia, Anti-semitism, Islamophobia, Afrophobia, Anti-roma/zinghanophobia, Religious intolerance, Nationalism
General Type: Racist violence, Racist discourse Groups affected / Interested in: Migrants, Refugees, Roma & Travelers, Muslims, Ethnic minorities, Religious minorities, Asylum seekers Strands: Discrimination, Racism, Statistics Key Areas: Racist violence - Hate Speech Statistics

Timeline

  • Report shows that nearly 5,800 hate crime cases were reported to the police in 2010

    The Swedish National Council on Crime prevention (Brottsförebygganderådet, Brå) published the annual report on hate crimes in Sweden in 2011 (Hatbrott 2010:12).  The report noted that nearly 5,800 hate crime cases were reported to the police. Majority of them, i.e. more than 4,100 cases, were identified as xenophobic/ racial hate crimes. Of those, racial hate crimes reported, 818 or 20 % were identified as Afrophobic, meaning that Afro-Swedes are among the most vulnerable groups of ...

 

In July 2008, Brottsförebyggande Rådet (Brå) [The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention] published statistical data regarding hate crimes during 2007 (Report 2008:15). In 2007, hate crimes with xenophobic, anti-Semitic or Islamophobic motives were identified in 2813 police crime reports, which represents an increase of 8 percent by comparison with the previous year. A xenophobic motive was identified in 2,489 complaints, an Islamophobic motive in 206 of the complaints, and an anti-Semitic motive in 118 complaints. The number of ideologically motivated complaints is higher concerning crimes with an anti-Semitic motive (35 per cent) in comparison with crimes with a xenophobic motive (10 per cent), and an Islamophobic motive (5 per cent). The number of complaints with an anti-Semitic motive has decreased with 12 percent compared to 2006. The complaints with an Islamophobic motive have decreased with 18 percent in 2007. One-fourth of the Islamophobic complaints are incitement to hatred. The most common types of crimes for Islamophobic hate crimes during 2007 are unlawful threats/harassment (33 per cent) and incitement to hatred (25 per cent). Half of all Islamophobic hate crimes are technically cleared up. For the Islamophobic hate crimes, the number of cases under investigation is lower compared to the other hate crimes. The most common way of committing an Islamophobic hate crime is through letters.