How is justice administered in Sweden?

Government sectors in Sweden:

Sweden’s government, like many other democratic systems around the world, is divided into
three branches: the legislative branch, which makes and passes laws; the judiciary branch,
which interprets and applies these laws in courts and the executive branch, which aims to
implement and enforce laws.

In Sweden, the court system includes district courts, which serve as the primary trial courts for
most civil and criminal cases, appellate courts, which review previously made decisions and the
Supreme Court. They all uphold the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” and most trials
are open to the public, reinforcing the transparency in the system.

Methods used to serve justice:

Nils Öberg, director-general of Sweden’s prison and probation service, argues that “Our role is
not to punish. The punishment is the prison sentence: they have been deprived of their
freedom. The punishment is that they are with us.” By this, Öberg means that the primary
function of prisons in Sweden is not to inflict additional suffering, as the deprivation of
freedom itself is the punishment.

Prisons in Sweden are designed to treat prisoners as people with psychological needs that need
to be taken care of. For instance, prison workers aren’t just there to guard the prison, they also
balance behavioral problems while preparing the inmates for re-entering society.

However, the Swedish system prefers to implement other methods like fines, probation or
community service. This is seen as, in 2013, four Swedish prisons closed due to a decline in the
number of inmates. This is due to the fact that most of the sentences to imprisonment are
shorter that 12 months. More precisely, around 68% of the sentences of 2022 were shorter
than eight months, most of them being significantly shorter than this. Furthermore,
capital punishment was abolished in stages from 1921 until 1973, when it was
completely removed from the constitution.

Children:
Children up to 15 years old are considered too young to be held criminally responsible for their
actions, so they focus on rehabilitating and supporting them. However, from the day you turn
15, you can bring a case to court in your own right and can be subject to criminal prosecution
and sentences to a variety of punishments. Nevertheless, the Swedish legal system typically
emphasises rehabilitation and education for young people and measures like youth care,
community service or probation to juveniles, instead of imprisonment.
An example of a prison in Sweden

Number of people sentenced to imprisonment in Sweden in 2022, by length of sentence