Offences in close relationships

Unabridged original, in Swedish: Brott i nära relationer (2014:8)

This report presents the results of a national survey commissioned by the Government and conducted by Brå, the National Council for Crime Prevention, regarding offences in close relationships. The survey was conducted within the framework of the Swedish Crime Sur­vey (NTU), an annual survey concerning people's safety and victimisation, carried out by Brå in the form of telephone interviews.

The purpose of the survey is to gain more knowledge of how widespread these types of offences are and to investigate their characteristics. The two main questions posed by the survey are

• what portion of the population (16–79 years) have been subjected to offences in a close relationship during the past year (2012), or at some other point in life
• to what extent have these victimisations been recurring.

Other issues investigated include

• how common it is for incidents to be reported to the Police
• why victims choose not to file a police report
• how common it is for victims to have children living in the same household as them
• how many of the victims have been in contact with medical services, social services, or women's or men's hotlines due to their victimisation
• how common it is for victims not to receive sufficient care, support, aid or protection.

The levels of victimisation noted among people appearing in this survey should be considered as minimum levels, as there is no doubt a large portion of cases that go unreported.