Published 25 October 2024 at 14.20
Domestic. Just over half of all students in year 9 state that they have been involved in some crime in the past twelve months, and the percentage is equally high for both boys and girls. This is shown by the School survey on crime from Brå.
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It is the first time since the surveys started in 2015 that there are as many girls as boys who state that they have committed any crime in the past year.
– However, it is more common that boys have been involved in vandalism and violent crimes, but when it comes to theft, a slightly higher proportion of girls state that they have been involved. The percentage of boys who have committed a violent crime has also decreased in recent years, says Aravella Lejonstad, investigator at Brå.
Overall, there is roughly the same percentage of students who state that they have committed a crime in the past 12 months, compared with previous surveys.
The results of the survey show that 45.3 percent of the students state that they have been subjected to theft, assault, threats, robbery or sexual offenses at least once in the past twelve months. The percentage of victims is at roughly the same level as in 2021. In 2023, the exposure to sexual crimes is at the lowest level since 2015 (12.5 percent), when the comparison period starts.
– There are fewer young people who state that they have been victimized for physical sexual violations or that they have been forced into sexual acts compared to previous examinations. At the same time, more than four out of ten girls state that they have received images with sexual content sent to them, without them asking for it themselves, says Aravella Lejonstad in a press release.
The proportion of young people who state that they have been exposed to offensive comments online has increased significantly in recent years. This is especially true among girls, where 37.2 percent stated that they had been exposed in 2023, compared to 25–30 percent in the years 2015–2021. Among boys, the proportion has increased from around 20 per cent to 25.2 per cent.
In this year's school survey, students have for the first time answered questions about the relationship they had with the perpetrator, in cases where they were exposed to crime. When it comes to abuse, it is most common among both boys and girls to have been victimized by a friend or acquaintance. When it comes to physical sexual violations, the distribution differs between girls and boys.
– For a majority of the boys who were exposed to sexual violations, the perpetrator was a friend, acquaintance or another student, while among girls it is most often the perpetrator is someone you don't know. A little less than every fifth girl who has been victimized has been victimized by someone they have or have had a romantic relationship with, says Aravella Lejonstad.