The debate about robbery has been hot and polarized.
According to the Crime Prevention Council (Brå), it also lacked good factual information.
Therefore, the authority has launched a new survey with a greater focus on the perpetrators.
The goal is to answer many of the questions that have never been investigated before.
Maximum number of reported robberies in ten years
Among other things, the survey will try to find out whether the perpetrators and victims have a Swedish or foreign background.
- We will look at it but then we do not know what answers we will get.
But where there is an identified perpetrator, we will definitely look at the background, says Maria von Bredow, investigator at Brå.
According to the statistics that SVT Nyheter has read, the figure for the number of reported robberies is the highest in ten years.
In 2019, 7741 robberies were reported to the police.
"Does not fully reflect reality"
She points out, however, that it is important to remember that many research studies show that the propensity to report and the risk of being suspected of crime is not evenly distributed in society and that it is affected by a number of factors.
- It is thus very likely that our report of the proportion with a Swedish / foreign background among victims and suspects does not fully reflect reality, says Maria von Bredow.
This is how Brå will go about it
The new report will be based on:
• A compilation of data from the registration and suspicion register as well as special extracts from Brås' own questionnaire studies on self-reported vulnerability
• Review of almost 800 preliminary investigations
• Statistical analyzes of all reported youth robberies during the years 2015–2019
• Interviews with young people who have been robbed or have been robbed
- We want to try to call in some of what is in demand.
So far, we can see that a large part, both of those who commit and those who are exposed, come from socio-economically vulnerable areas, says Maria von Bredow.