Expulsion on Account of Criminal Offences: Swedish District Court Practice 1973–2008

Abstract

This article examines the implementation of expulsion because of criminality, via a quantitative study of all convictions involving expulsion in Swedish district courts during 1973–2008. Central questions are how the number of expulsions has changed over time, and how this trend can be understood in relation to legislative changes, numbers convicted, and possible changes in patterns of convictions among foreign citizens. The study also examines the offences associated with the use of expulsion and the sanctions awarded to offenders in addition to expulsion. The article shows that expulsion practice in several aspects differs between persons who are and are not registered as residents in Sweden. The number of expelled persons that are residents in Sweden follows the number of convicted foreign nationals, whereas the number of expelled among non-resident convicted foreign citizens increases over time. This increase cannot be explained by an increase in convictions or by legislative changes. The results also shows that residents have over time come to be expelled for increasingly serious offences and less often, relatively speaking, for various types of theft offences. Non-residents, in their turn, have been expelled for more or less the same proportion of different types of crime over time, but in increasing numbers.