A Wave Of Crime Is Engulfing Sweden: Fraud, Sexual Offenses Reach Record Levels

The annual Swedish Crime survey has shown an increase in five out of the six types of criminal activities against individuals. While crimes like fraud and sexual assault have reached record levels.

The number of Swedes who were victims of crimes such as fraud and sexual offenses jumped to the highest level on record last year. According to Bloomberg, a survey by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention showed that 15.6 percent of people suffered one or more offenses against the person (defined in the survey as assault, threats, sexual offenses, robbery, fraud, or harassment) last year. That’s up from 13.3 percent in 2015 and the highest number recorded since the annual Swedish Crime Survey started in 2006.

Of the six types offenses against a person, five of six rose to their highest level on record last year. The number of assault cases reached its second-highest level. The number of offenses against individuals “was at a relatively stable level 2005 to 2014, at 11.3 percent to 13.1 percent, but the last two years show an increase,” the council said in the report published this week. The crimes “that have had the clearest development in the past few years are harassment, fraud, and sexual offenses,” the agency said.

“Young women aged between 16 and 24 is the group that’s most subject to sexual offenses, with 14 percent of young women stating that they were victims of at least one such crime during 2016,” the council said. “Among men in the same age group, 1.2 percent said they had been victims.”

Fewer than half of the crimes in the survey were reported to the police. Sexual offenses, harassment, and threats were the least reported while people most often notified the police of burglaries, the survey showed. The survey also did not say why the crime rate is spiking, nor did it offer a solution.

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Contributed by Dawn Luger of The Daily Sheeple.

Dawn Luger is a staff writer and reporter for The Daily Sheeple. Wake the flock up – follow Dawn’s work at our Facebook or Twitter.