NCJ Number
80619
Date Published
1980
Length
149 pages
Annotation
Crime statistics for Sweden are given for the year 1979 and for the period of years from 1950 to 1979. Crime categories include violent personal crimes, rape, robbery, burglary, auto theft, other theft, checks and credit card fraud, and vandalism. Crime trends are examined, and developments in the Swedish penal and legal systems are reviewed in appended papers.
Abstract
A brief review of the incidence of organized and economic crime is also included. Following the statistical presentation is a special section on alcohol and drug abuse, which compares the situation in Sweden with the international picture. Overall, crime in the years from 1950 shows a steady increase; a significant amount of unsolved crime is apparent, but an increase in crime reporting is also indicated. These crime figures can also be affected by a variety of other factors, including reporting procedures, methods of calculating rates and classifying crimes, etc. When individual categories of crime are considered, the statistics show that violent crime (murder, assault, manslaughter) has increased by 1 percent from 1978, that the number of reported rapes increased from 1978 to 1979 and over the whole decade of the 1970's, but that the number of robberies decreased slightly from 1978 to 1979, despite a generally steady increase since 1950. Burglary rates were more erratic over the period from 1950, although the general trend was to increase. However in 1978, burglary rates began to drop and, by the end of 1979, had shown a total decrease of 11 percent. Auto theft also started a dramatic decline following 1978, but other theft offenses increased slightly. Numbers of reported frauds rose greatly in 1979, mainly due to check and credit card frauds. Finally, incidence of vandalism continued a slow but steady climb since 1950. Comparisons of Swedish crime rates for these categories with those of the remaining Scandinavian countries show that Sweden has a higher incidence of crime for all crime categories except auto theft (Sweden has the lowest). Comparison with West Germany, the United States, and Great Britain shows Sweden having the highest crime rate per population size for robbery but a relatively moderate rate for the other categories. Statistical graphs, tabular data, and 28 references are provided.