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Crime and the fear of crime are social issues that are attracting an increasing amount of attention, and the demands being made on society's capacity to prevent these problems are increasing. There is also a growing need to monitor and analyze crime and the fear of crime.

In 2005, the Swedish Government commissioned the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) and other criminal justice agencies to plan and implement an annual survey of exposure to crime and levels of public safety (the Swedish Crime Survey) in Sweden. The first wave of data collection took place in 2006 and the principal findings were presented in a report in 2007. This publication is a summary of the sixth report of principal findings, based on the sixth wave of data collection, which was conducted in 2011.

The Swedish Crime Survey covers a very broad range of issues, and this report presents the overall results relating to victimization, fear of crime and public confidence in the criminal justice system. The report contains few detailed analyses or explanations of the findings presented. In depth studies of this sort are instead presented separately in the form of special studies. Examples include studies on domestic violence against men and women, young people's confidence in the criminal justice system and crime victims' experiences of their contacts with the criminal justice system (Brå reports 2009:12, 2009:20 and 2010:1).

Knowledge of victimization, fear of crime and public confidence provides an important basis for developing and improving the criminal justice system and other agencies, and may help to reduce crime and increase perceptions of safety. The principal authors of the report are Åsa Irlander and Thomas Hvitfeldt,