What Swedish law actually carries

Seizing and carrying off or confining a child or anyone else, intending to harm them in life or health, to force them into service, or to extort. The offence is complete on the seizure and the intent; no harm need follow.

There is no aggravated degree of this offence. Swedish law has the ordinary degree and a lesser one, so anything written about aggravated kidnapping is describing a crime that does not exist. Because life imprisonment is in the range, kidnapping never becomes time-barred, and it can be prosecuted in Sweden without the act being criminal where it happened.

Source: Brottsbalken (1962:700) 4 kap. 1 §, senaste lydelse lag (2009:396). Maximistraffet höjdes från tio till arton år 1 juli 2009 (prop. 2008/09:118). Berördes inte av 2026 års straffskärpningsreform.

Three elements, all required for an adult victim: an improper means, a trade measure (recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring or receiving), and a purpose of exploitation. The statute requires the means to have caused the trade measure.

Against a person under eighteen, no improper means is required at all. Negligence as to the child's age is enough: a perpetrator who did not know but should have does not escape. This mirrors article 3(c) of the Palermo Protocol.

Source: Brottsbalken 4 kap. 1 a §, senaste lydelse lag (2018:601), i kraft 1 juli 2018. Rekvisiten enligt Åklagarmyndighetens rättsliga vägledning 2025:1, februari 2025.

Exploiting a person in forced labour, work under plainly unreasonable conditions, or begging, through unlawful coercion, deception, or by taking advantage of their dependence, defencelessness or difficult situation. No trade measure is needed.

Introduced on 1 July 2018 to close a gap. Trafficking targets the trade measures and is complete before exploitation begins; this offence needs no trade measure and puts the exploitation itself at the centre. Here too, no means is required against a child.

Source: Brottsbalken 4 kap. 1 b §, senaste lydelse lag (2018:601), i kraft 1 juli 2018. Skälen i prop. 2017/18:123 s. 33 till 36.

Sexual intercourse, or a comparable act, with a child under fifteen. Consent is irrelevant: a child under fifteen cannot give it. The section also covers children of fifteen to seventeen where the perpetrator is a parent or has the child in their care.

The maximum for the aggravated degree rose from ten years to twelve on 1 August 2026. Neither degree ever becomes time-barred, and the removal of the limitation period applies retroactively to acts not already time-barred when it came in.

Source: Brottsbalken 6 kap. 4 §, senaste lydelse lag (2026:1318), i kraft 1 augusti 2026 (prop. 2025/26:218, bet. 2025/26:JuU42, rskr. 2025/26:390). Preskription: 35 kap. 10 §, lag (2025:151).

Obtaining a sexual act from a person under eighteen in return for payment. It applies even where someone else promised or paid, which is what catches the intermediary arrangements.

Reports rose 25 per cent between 2023 and 2024, and roughly a third of these cases involve some form of sugar dating. On 1 July 2025 the subsidiarity clause was removed, so the offence can now be charged alongside other sexual offences rather than only when nothing else fits.

Source: Brottsbalken 6 kap. 9 §, senaste lydelse lag (2025:586), i kraft 1 juli 2025 (prop. 2024/25:124). Minimistraffet höjdes till sex månader 1 augusti 2022 (SFS 2022:1043). Statistik: Polismyndigheten, Lägesrapport 26 (2024), dnr A644.887/2025.

Promoting or improperly profiting from another person's casual sexual relations in return for payment. A landlord who does not act against a flat being used this way can be liable under the second paragraph.

Whether the offence is aggravated turns on scale, on significant profit, and on whether it involved a ruthless exploitation of another person. Since 1 July 2025 it also reaches acts performed remotely, without physical contact.

Source: Brottsbalken 6 kap. 12 §, senaste lydelse lag (2025:586), i kraft 1 juli 2025 (prop. 2024/25:124).