Crime in Sweden – the difficulties in making international comparisons
Sometimes, simplistic or inaccurate information can be read about crime in Sweden. It is easy to misinterpret crime statistics, and this is especially true when it comes to making international comparisons. Here are the reasons why.
There are no international standards
Crime statistics are influenced by both legal and statistical factors, and by the extent to which crime is reported and registered. These factors can vary from one country to another. There are no international standards for how crime statistics should be produced and presented and this makes international comparisons difficult.
Three important factors to remember
1. Swedish statistics record
all reported events as crimes even if some of them are later found not to have constituted criminal offences.
2. Several offences of the same kind against a single victim will be
counted in some countries as a single crime. By contrast, in Swedish crime statistics
every offence occurring under these circumstances
is counted separately.
3. In Swedish statistics, attempted offences are in most cases
counted together with completed crimes.