Crime in rural Sweden

The objective of this article is to assess the levels and spatial patterns of crime in rural Sweden. This involves a summary of the changing levels and composition of a selected group of offences from 1996 to 2007 in two groups of rural areas (remote and accessible) in relation to urban areas. Crime rates are modelled cross-sectionally as a function of the municipalities’ structural indicators. Geographical information systems (GIS) and spatial statistics techniques are used to assess shifting patterns of concentration of thefts and violence as well as for modelling crime rates. Findings show that rural areas have become more criminogenic than they were a decade ago. Changes in the rates and geography were found using cluster techniques for both violence and theft. Although models of rural crime do not show any special ‘rural dimension’, the predicting variables in models containing both urban and rural areas are not exactly the same as in models with rural areas only. Crime is often linked to the presence of alcohol-selling premises, characteristics of family structure and proportion of young male population.