Reported offences

In 2018, a total of 22,500 sex offences were reported; this is a 2 per cent increase as compared with 2017. The number of rapes reported to police increased by 8 per cent to 7,960 between 2017 and 2018.

The number of reported rape offences has increased by 34 per cent over the last ten years (2009-2018). The increase can be partially explained by changes in the legislation, as from 1 July 2013, the sex offence legislation was made tougher; among other things rape was expanded to include cases where the victim reacts passively.

Other, far-reaching changes in the legislation were made on 1 April 2005. This legislation entails, among other things, that certain acts which were previously classified as sexual exploitation are now classified as rape. The effect of the statutory change appeared in the statistics such that the number of reported offences in respect of sexual coercion and exploitation declined in the years immediately following the statutory change while the number of reported rapes increased.

In the Swedish system, individual reports regarding a great number of offences may affect and give rise to variations in the statistic. For instance, when a single case is reported that turns out to involve hundreds or even thousands of instances of offences committed against an individual over the course of many years, every single incident is recorded as an offence in the year it was reported. It is also important to remember that non-reporting is particularly extensive for sex offences and changes in the inclination to report can affect the number of rapes in the statistic.

International comparisons

There are no international standards for how crime statistics should be produced and presented and this makes international comparisons difficult. Keep in mind that comparisons between countries on the basis of crime statistics require caution since such statistics are produced differently in different countries. Criminal statistics do not provide a simple reflection of the level of crime in a given country. Criminal 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.