Chapter V

What Swedish law actually carries

Kidnapping, trafficking, exploitation and the sexual offences against children, with the sentence each one carries drawn to the same scale.

People ask what someone actually gets. It is a fair question and the answer is usually given badly, either as a vague sense that it is serious or as a number pulled from a range without saying which end. Here is every range, quoted from the statute, drawn against one axis so they can be compared.

4:1

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.

4:1 a

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.

4:1 b

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.

6:4

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).

6:9

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.

6:12

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

How far Swedish law reaches

Abroad, without the act being a crime there

Normally Sweden only prosecutes an act committed abroad if it was also criminal where it happened. That requirement is lifted for trafficking, and for the sexual offences in chapter 6 sections 1 to 6, 8, 9 and 12 when committed against someone under eighteen. A Swede who buys a sexual act from a child abroad can therefore be tried in Sweden even where local law permits it. Two limits are worth stating: section 6:11, buying a sexual act from an adult, is not on that list, and a prosecution for an act abroad needs authorisation, normally from the Prosecutor-General.

Brottsbalken 2 kap. 3 §, 2 kap. 5 § andra stycket, samt 2 kap. 7 och 8 §§ om åtalsförordnande.

With no time limit at all

The whole chapter on limitation was replaced on 1 April 2025. Rape of a child and aggravated rape of a child never become time-barred, and nor does rape against anyone under eighteen, or any offence carrying life. The change applies retroactively to acts that had not already expired. Two limits: ordinary limitation still applies where the perpetrator was under eighteen at the time, and prosecutors take the view that the exemption cannot be stretched to acts charged as sexual exploitation of a minor before 2005, because that would read the list wider than it is written.

Brottsbalken 35 kap. 10 §, lag (2025:151), i kraft 1 april 2025, med övergångsbestämmelse punkt 2. Preskriptionen för våldtäkt mot barn avskaffades ursprungligen 1 maj 2020.

What it produces

A penalty range is what the law permits. These are what it produced.

Polismyndigheten, Människohandel för sexuella och andra ändamål, Lägesrapport 26 (2024), dnr A644.887/2025, avsnitt 4.1, med statistik från Brå och hovrätterna.

Jämställdhetsmyndigheten, rapport 2025:11, Arbete mot prostitution och människohandel i Sverige 2024, tabell 2 s. 33.

3 802

Brottsförebyggande rådet, Anmälda brott 2025, slutlig statistik, publicerad 31 mars 2026, avsnittet Sexualbrott.

Barnafrid, Linköpings universitet, Kartläggning kommuner och polisområden utan barnahus, delrapport januari 2025.