On 12 June 1996, the Swedish security police issued a press release publishing statistics on crimes apparently committed by supporters of political extremist groups. According to the police, in over 60 percent of cases, such crimes could not be directly attributable to any one specific group. Other identified perpetrators were individual criminals with a neo-nazi orientation. A great number of racist and neo-nazi publications emerged, as well as music from the same source. A special cause of concern was that most such materials were circulated in schools, and the majority of those committing racist crimes were very young, many youths aged 20 years and younger.
Swedish legislation provides a good basis for the prosecution of racially motivated crimes.
In addition to the Swedish Constitution, the Criminal Code included several sections dealing with racist crimes. Before 1989, only a handful of verdicts based on this law had been handed down. Later, however, their number has significantly increased. However, according to the Swedish Ombudsman against Discrimination, very few reports of discrimination have actually led to guilty verdicts. Therefore, one 1996 decision was of great importance.