ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 is devoted to a description and analysis of the statistical data on hate crimes produced by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå). A reading of Säpo’s and Brå’s reports is proposed that considers contexts in which hate-crime statistics have been produced in Sweden, identifies frameworks within which this knowledge has been situated and analyses the shifts these frameworks have undergone. It is a way of attending to the politics of hate-crime statistics. Also, the ways in which this knowledge is informed by the quantitative nature of the method adopted in the reports are explored to show how what I call ‘the poetics of hate-crime statistics’ shape the understanding of racist violence. Finally, the genealogy of the concept of ‘hate crime’ is traced and examined in some international debates and developments, and its Swedish life explored. The chapter closes with an analysis of how the issue of anti-Muslim racism—or Islamophobia—is addressed in hate-crime reports.
