NCJ Number
164871
Date Published
1996
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Because immigrant criminality is a topic of special interest in the political criminality debate in Sweden, a cooperative project was initiated by Sweden's National Council for Crime Prevention and Center for Immigrant Research to obtain data on international migration and criminality.
Abstract
The project included a statistical analysis of criminality among immigrants and children of immigrants, based on a survey of 3.5 million individuals divided into the categories of immigrants, children of immigrants, and Swedes. The survey had three main objectives: (1) determine if immigrants and/or children of immigrants were over- or under-represented in different types of criminality; (2) estimate the share of crime for which immigrants and/or children of immigrants were responsible; and (3) study the over- and under-representation of different groups of nationalities in various forms of criminality. Survey results showed that 14 percent of crimes registered in Sweden during the 1985-1989 period were committed by immigrants. Children of immigrants committed 13 percent of crimes registered in Sweden, about the same proportion as immigrants. According to crime participation figures, children of immigrants were over-represented in comparison to Swedes, but this was partially due to unfavorable age division. With consideration paid to sex, age, and residential area, the over- representation of children of immigrants in crime was lower. Factors that may have affected the crime rate among children of immigrants in Sweden are discussed.