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Crime & safety · statistics and concepts

Youth robbery

Youth robbery is not a separate offence classification — it means robbery where the victim is under 18. Here are the reported-crime statistics, what Brå's mapping shows about victims and suspects, and where the evidence ends.

Sources: Brå 2021:19 Youth robbery, Brå reported offences, Penal Code ch. 8.

Last updated: View changelog

Fact pageData 2015–2025Sources checked

Three things to know first

  1. 1. Youth robbery is not an offence classification. Robbery is regulated in chapter 8, sections 5–6 of the Penal Code; the category is defined by the victim's age, under 18.
  2. 2. Reports more than doubled in 2015–2019 and have declined every year since. Brå stresses that the rise coincided with sharply increased attention.
  3. 3. There are no official statistics on cleared or prosecuted youth robberies — conviction statistics do not break robbery down by victim age.
How we measureCrime and safety →

Definitions and legal provisions

TermLegal provisionMeaning
RobberyPenal Code ch. 8 s. 5Stealing something by using violence against a person, or threats implying imminent danger. What separates robbery from theft is the violence or threat — not the value of what is taken.
Aggravated robberyPenal Code ch. 8 s. 6Robbery assessed as aggravated, for example if the violence was life-threatening, if the act caused serious bodily harm, or if it was particularly ruthless.
TheftPenal Code ch. 8 s. 1Unlawfully taking someone else's property without violence or threats. The same item taken under threat of violence is robbery instead.
Youth robberyNo separate classification — an analytical definitionIn Brå 2021:19, robbery where the victim is under 18. The definition is based on the victim's age, not the offender's. The term is used in research because robberies against young people differ in situation, takings and motive from robberies against adults and shops.
Humiliation robberyNo separate classification — a debate termRobbery where the course of events includes power exertion or humiliation beyond the theft itself. Such elements may affect classification and penal value but are not recorded separately in the statistics.

Why youth robbery is studied separately

  • • The takings differ: mobile phones, branded clothing and wireless earphones rather than cash from a till.
  • • The situation differs: the robberies mostly happen outdoors after school, in public settings and close to other people.
  • • The motives differ: besides money, Brå cites status within the group, excitement and underlying conflicts.
  • • Both victims and suspects are mainly young people, which makes schools, social services and parents central actors alongside police and courts.

Reported youth robberies over time

The series covers reported personal robberies where the victim is under 18. It measures reported events — not offenders and not convictions.

Personrån mot person under 18 år

2015–2024 · antal anmälningar
Visa datatabell
Årantal anmälningar
20151086
20182484
20192855
20202548
20212225
20221996
20231735
20241582

Källa: BRÅ – Anmälda brott · Senast hämtad: 2025-01

OBS: Uppgången 2015–2019 sammanfaller med tydligt ökad medial och polisiär uppmärksamhet kring 'rån mot barn', vilket sannolikt höjt anmälningsbenägenheten. Både faktisk brottsutveckling och anmälningsfrekvens bidrar till nivåförändringen — de går inte att separera i anmälningsstatistik.

  • • Reported-crime statistics count reported events, not offenders and not convictions. A report may be dropped.
  • • Brå emphasises that the increase in 2015–2019 coincided with sharply increased media and police attention. Actual crime development and increased reporting propensity cannot be separated in reported-crime statistics.
  • • According to Brå, the 2020 decline occurred only in metropolitan and metropolitan-adjacent municipalities and coincided with the pandemic's effects on young people's movement patterns.
  • • The series covers personal robbery where the victim is under 18. Shop robberies and robberies against adults are not included.
  • • Cleared and prosecuted youth robberies are not reported as a separate category in Brå's official statistics — robbery is reported as a whole, without breakdown by victim age. That gap cannot be filled without a commissioned data extract.

Reported personal robberies — all ages

Personal robbery in total, for comparison. It includes robberies against adults and is therefore not youth robbery.

YearReported personal robberiesNote
20244 074Firearms were used in 356 personal robberies.
20253 155−23 % against 2024. Firearms in 283 robberies, 83 % of them against adults.

Victims — who is affected

  • • The victims are mainly teenage boys. Robberies against girls occur but are fewer in the reports.
  • • The robberies mostly happen after school, between 15:00 and 22:00.
  • • Common locations are shopping centres and malls, public-transport hubs, schools and sports facilities.
  • • Most robberies occur close to other people — not in secluded places.
  • • Based on interviews with parents, Brå describes consequences in the form of fear and avoidance: young people stop moving in certain areas, change their route or drop activities. In individual cases families have considered moving.
  • • Self-reported victimisation for robbery among young people rose during the period, as did worry about being victimised — particularly among boys.

Suspects — what Brå 2021:19 reports

  • • The majority of suspects are boys, mainly aged 15–20. The largest increase in suspects is among 15- and 16-year-olds.
  • • The share of suspects who are girls rose from 4 to 8 per cent during the period — most clearly in the Stockholm police region.
  • • Robberies are often committed by several people together; lone offenders are a minority in the reviewed material.
  • • Close to half of youth robberies are committed by someone suspected of youth robbery more than once.
  • • Two-thirds of the suspects in 2015–2019 had a foreign background, and many lived in socioeconomically vulnerable areas. Brå reports this descriptively: the report does not test causes and does not control for age, sex or socioeconomic factors.
  • • Common motives according to Brå: a need for money, status within one's own group, excitement, or an underlying conflict between suspect and victim.

Methods and takings

  • • Threats are more common than extensive physical violence. Superiority in numbers is often enough for the victim to hand over their belongings.
  • • Weapons, above all knives, occur in some robberies but are not the most common element.
  • • Robberies not infrequently begin with a pretext: a question, a request to borrow a phone, or a claimed earlier conflict.
  • • Common takings are mobile phones, branded clothing, jackets, wireless earphones and small amounts of cash. Watches and jewellery also occur.
  • • Some cases involve power exertion and humiliation beyond the theft itself — what the public debate calls humiliation robbery.

Geographic patterns

  • • The number of reported youth robberies is highest in the metropolitan regions, where the population base is also largest.
  • • In percentage terms, the increase in 2015–2020 was largest in smaller towns and rural municipalities.
  • • The 2020 decline occurred only in metropolitan and metropolitan-adjacent municipalities; in smaller municipalities numbers continued to rise.
  • • Brå does not publish an official municipal series for youth robbery specifically. Municipal figures for robbery as a whole exist in Brå's statistics database, but they do not distinguish the victim's age.

What Brå says

  • • Brå 2021:19 is the only systematic national review of youth robbery. It is based on reports and preliminary investigations from 2015–2019 plus interviews.
  • • The report finds that the number of reported robberies against people under 18 more than doubled in 2015–2019.
  • • The report constructed six categories of power exertion and humiliation elements, since neither a legal definition nor earlier research existed. The share of cases with such elements did not increase during the period.
  • • Brå stresses that reported-crime statistics are affected by attention and reporting propensity, and that the trend therefore cannot be read as a pure measure of criminality.
  • • The report points to the need for cooperation between police, schools and social services, and to place-based measures in the settings where the robberies occur.

What the police say

  • • The Police Authority handles robbery against young people within local situational reports and community pledges, not as a separate national statistical product.
  • • The police report confirmed shootings and explosions nationally, but not youth robbery — national robbery statistics are published by Brå.
  • • We do not reproduce individual police statements without a primary source. Where the authority has published a report or situational assessment, it is linked under Primary sources.

Prevention work

ActorType of measure
PoliceArea-based presence in the settings and at the times when robberies occur, cooperation through local situational reports and community pledges, and investigation and child-welfare notification when suspects are minors.
SchoolsReporting routines, safety work in and around school grounds, and information sharing with social services and the police under cooperation agreements.
Social servicesChild-welfare notifications, interventions for young people at risk and for young people suspected of crime, and follow-up after a sanction.
MunicipalitiesSince 1 July 2023 municipalities have a statutory crime-prevention duty (Act 2023:196), which includes situational assessments and action plans. Place-based cooperation around malls, transport stops and school grounds is a common measure.

Primary sources

The question this page answers

How common are youth robberies in Sweden, have they increased, and what do we actually know about victims and suspects?

At a glance

Key figures — the most important numbers on this page

Reported personal robberies against under-18s, 2015 → 2019

1,086 → 2,855

Brå — reported offences

Reported personal robberies against under-18s in 2024

1,582

Brå — reported offences; six consecutive years of decline since the 2019 peak

Main age range among suspects

15–20

Brå 2021:19; the largest increase is among 15- and 16-year-olds

Share of suspects who are girls, 2015–2019

4 → 8 %

Brå 2021:19 — most pronounced in the Stockholm police region

Share of youth robberies committed by a repeat suspect

about 50 %

Brå 2021:19

Most common time of day

15:00–22:00

Brå 2021:19 — after school, often near malls and transport hubs

Official series on prosecuted youth robberies

0

Conviction statistics do not break robbery down by victim age

What does the data show?

Objective observations — not interpretations

  • Youth robbery is not a separate offence classification. Robbery is regulated in chapter 8, sections 5–6 of the Penal Code, and research defines youth robbery by the victim's age — under 18.
  • Reported personal robberies against under-18s more than doubled between 2015 and 2019, from 1,086 to 2,855. They have declined every year since, to 1,582 in 2024.
  • Brå stresses that the rise coincided with sharply increased media and police attention. Actual crime trends and increased reporting propensity cannot be separated in reported-crime statistics.
  • Robberies mainly occur after school between 15:00 and 22:00, in public settings near malls, transport hubs, schools and sports facilities — usually close to other people.
  • Both victims and suspects are mostly teenage boys. Robberies are often committed by several offenders together, and nearly half are committed by someone suspected of youth robbery more than once.
  • Threats are more common than extensive violence; typical takings are mobile phones, branded clothing and wireless earphones. Some cases involve power exertion and humiliation beyond the theft itself.
  • There are no official statistics on cleared or prosecuted youth robberies, and no published municipal series for youth robbery specifically.

Method note
Quantitative figures come from Brå’s official statistics on reported offences (personal robbery, victim under 18) and from Brå 2021:19 “Ungdomsrån”, which reviewed reports and investigations from 2015–2019. Findings from the report refer to that period and cannot be extrapolated. No figures on this page are calculated or estimated by Sverigefakta.

Definitions

How the numbers are counted — and what they do not cover

Robbery
Stealing by using violence against a person or threats implying imminent danger (Penal Code ch. 8 s. 5). It is the violence or threat — not the value — that separates robbery from theft.
Aggravated robbery
Robbery assessed as aggravated, e.g. life-threatening violence, serious bodily harm or particular ruthlessness (Penal Code ch. 8 s. 6).
Youth robbery
An analytical definition used in Brå 2021:19: robbery where the victim is under 18. Defined by victim age, not offender age.No separate offence code — the statistics combine personal robbery with the victim's recorded age.
Humiliation robbery
Robbery involving power exertion or humiliation beyond the theft itself. Such elements may affect classification and penal value but are not recorded separately.
Reported offences
Events reported to and recorded by police, customs, prosecutors or the Economic Crime Authority. Says nothing about whether an offence was substantiated.

Primary sources

Agencies and research institutions behind this page

3

agencies/institutions

4

reports & studies

2

primary datasets

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to what is most often discussed

A robbery where the victim is under 18. It is an analytical definition used in research, not a separate offence classification. Robbery is regulated in chapter 8, sections 5–6 of the Penal Code, and Brå 2021:19 defines the category by the victim's age, not the offender's.

Related topics

Logical next steps if you want to understand the background

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