The Blind Spot: Assessing the increase in self-reported victimization among young Swedish women

In the Swedish Crime Survey, young women (aged 16-24) haveconsistently stated that they are exposed to offences againstthe individual to a greater extent than young men for the lastten years. This trend challenges conventional notions ofcriminal victimization, where the focus has been directed atmen's criminality and victimization, often within the frameworkof a gang- and youth-related crime perspective. A possibleexplanation that is often highlighted is that the increase in selfreported victimization might not be due to an actual increase.Instead, it might be the result of a broader change in women´sperceptions about what victimization in general, and sexualoffences particularly, entails. According to this perspective,more incidents are reported as sexual offences by youngercohorts of women compared to previous cohorts. However,there are no present studies that assess the validity of thisexplanation empirically. Therefore, the aim of the present studyis to examine if there has been a change in measurementequivalence among young female respondents (ages 16-24)who’ve answered the Swedish Crime Survey during the periodof 2006-2021.