Swedish murder rate spikes in 2013
Last year testified to an upswing in deadly violence, new crime statistics revealed on Monday, as 87 people lost their lives to violence in Sweden, compared to 68 the year before. Almost one in three was shot.
Statistics collated by the National Crime Prevention Council (Brå) showed that 2013 was more violent than 2012, but over the longer term, fatal violence has gone down in Sweden. The statistics also included manslaughter.
"The number of cases of deadly violence shows relatively large up- and downswings between years, and has in the last ten-year period fluctuated between 68 and 111 cases," the statisticians wrote in the annual report.
"In a longer perspective, deadly violence shows a downwards trend."
Seventy percent of the victims were men, the figures show. Brå noted that the gender split has remained more or less constant since the 1990s.
The rate of gun crime went up slightly when looking at confirmed deaths. Thirty percent of deadly violence victims were shot in 2013, compared to 25 percent the year prior.
Two-thirds of the deaths took place in the counties of Stockholm, Västra Götaland (Gothenburg), and Skåne (Malmö) - the three big-city counties in the country.
"It's an upswing of one percentage point since 2012," Brå noted. "Relative to population size these counties were somewhat over-represented."
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Statistics collated by the National Crime Prevention Council (Brå) showed that 2013 was more violent than 2012, but over the longer term, fatal violence has gone down in Sweden. The statistics also included manslaughter.
"The number of cases of deadly violence shows relatively large up- and downswings between years, and has in the last ten-year period fluctuated between 68 and 111 cases," the statisticians wrote in the annual report.
"In a longer perspective, deadly violence shows a downwards trend."
Seventy percent of the victims were men, the figures show. Brå noted that the gender split has remained more or less constant since the 1990s.
The rate of gun crime went up slightly when looking at confirmed deaths. Thirty percent of deadly violence victims were shot in 2013, compared to 25 percent the year prior.
Two-thirds of the deaths took place in the counties of Stockholm, Västra Götaland (Gothenburg), and Skåne (Malmö) - the three big-city counties in the country.
"It's an upswing of one percentage point since 2012," Brå noted. "Relative to population size these counties were somewhat over-represented."
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