The Swedish Crime Survey 2008
Victimization, fear of crime and public confidence in the criminal justice system. English summary of Brå report 2009:2
The Swedish Crime Survey covers a broad range of issues. This report presents the overall results relating to victimization, fear of crime and public confidence in the criminal justice system.
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About the publication
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- © Brottsförebyggande rådet 2010
- urn:nbn:se:bra-368
- Report 2009:2
About the study
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 third report of principal findings, based on the third wave of data collection, which was conducted in 2008. 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. A few recent examples are studies on reporting propensities and the significance of segregation for public perceptions of safety (Brå reports 2008:12 and 2008:16). Furthermore, studies on confidence in the criminal justice system and crime victims’ experiences of their contacts with the criminal justice system are underway.
This year’s report includes new results accounting for perceptions of safety and fear of crime among victims of specific types of crime, such as assault or robbery, and also results on the general populations’ level of confidence in the police’s ability to treat victims well and suspects fairly.
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.