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Persons suspected of offences with LGBTQI-related hate crimes

English summary of Brå report 2024:13

This report supplements Brå’s hate crime statistics with a descriptive analysis of persons suspected of committing offences that has been reported to the police and where Brå have identified LGBTQI-related hate crime motives

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About the publication

Author
Jon Lundgren
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© Brottsförebyggande rådet 2025
urn:nbn:se:bra-1226
Report 2024:13

Summary of main results

This is a summary of the main result from the report Personer misstänkta för hbtqi-relaterade hatbrott. The purpose of the report is to supplement Brå’s hate crime statistics with a descriptive analysis of persons suspected of committing offences that has been reported to the police and where Brå have identified LGBTQI-related hate crime motives. The report covers the period 2008–2022 and close to 1 900 individuals suspected of crimes with LGBTQI-related hate crime motives.

LGBTQI-related hate crimes are crimes motivated by the perpetrator's prejudice or beliefs about sexual orientation or transgender identity or expression or any other similar circumstance. The results are presented broken down according to the hate crime motives ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘transphobia’.

Suspected persons in police reports where Brå identified an LGBTQI-related hate crime motive

Of the more than 6 700 reports where Brå identified an LGBTQI-related hate crime motive, about a quarter of them contained information on one or more suspects. The suspect was a man in about four out of five police reports and a majority of the reports concerned one suspect. The results were similar regardless of whether the motive was sexual orientation or transphobic.

A majority of suspects had also been suspected for other crimes

The majority of the suspected persons were suspected of offences in more than one report, and over four per cent appeared in more than one report where Brå identified an LGBTQI-related hate crime motive. Regarding the distribution of the suspects’ age and gender, the group does not distinguish itself from people suspected for offences in general; that is to say a majority of the suspects are men and it is more common that younger persons are suspected of committing offences than older persons.

Suspected offences primarily involve assault, unlawful threats and molestation

The three most common categories of offence were assault, unlawful threats and molestation. This pertains both to motives concerning sexual orientation and transphobia, and regardless of the suspected person’s gender. In reports where the motive was sexual orientation, there was a larger proportion of women than men who were suspected of molestation (31 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively), while men to a greater extent were suspected of assault and unlawful threats. Among offences with transphobic motives, the distribution was more even in terms of the suspects’ gender and age.

Differences between suspected women and men regarding location of the crime and relationship with the victim

Overall, there is great variation regarding both the location of the crime and the perpetrator’s relationship with the victim, which to some extent differs in terms of the suspect’s age and gender. Offences reported as occurring in public places and offences where the suspect was not known to the victim were more common among male suspects as compared to female suspects. Among women suspected of offences, it was instead more common that the offence occurred in digital environments or in the victim’s home. It was also much more common among female suspects that the victim was someone closely related, and particularly that the victim was a current or former partner. A majority of the victims were registered as men in the reports, regardless if the suspect was male or female.

Offences in public places most common among younger offenders, offences in victim’s home more common in older age groups

Reports that included information about the location of the crime show that among suspects aged 15–24, it is more common that the offence occurred in a public place or in a school environment. A large proportion of the suspected offences involved assault, which was the most common crime category for both of those locations. When it comes to suspects in the older age groups (25–44 years of age, 45–64 years of age, 65 years of age or older), the proportion of offences committed in or in the vicinity of the
victim’s home was significantly higher, and was the most common location in all three of the older age groups.

Similar overall pattern among persons suspected of transphobic hate crimes or offences where motive was sexual orientation

When it comes to differences between those suspected of offences with transphobic hate crime motives and motives targeting the victim’s sexual orientation, the pattern is generally similar. Due to the limited number of reports with transphobic hate crime motives, the differences that emerge are too small to allow drawing any definite conclusions. The comparison is also complicated by the fact that LGBTQI-related hate crime motives often overlap, such as when homophobic expressions are used against transgender people.