What is the average age of convicted rapists in Sweden?
Executive summary
The best-available studies and court-based analyses indicate that convicted rapists who assault adult women in Sweden tend to be in their early thirties (average ≈ 33 years), but important subgroups—particularly those convicted in gang-rape cases—are markedly younger (average ≈ 21 years in some press investigations), and small-sample local studies show a concentration in the 30–40 range [1] [2] [3].
1. What the research actually measures: definitions and samples matter
Published academic work that explicitly reports an average age generally separates rapes of adult women from child sexual abuse, and often restricts samples to convicted offenders recorded in court or national registers; one comparative study of convicted offenders in Malmö reported rapists (adult victims) averaging about 33 years old, while child sexual abusers averaged about 24.6 years [1] [4], and a national register study included offenders aged 15–60 which shapes who is counted and the computed averages [5].
2. National-register and academic estimates point to early-30s for adult-victim rapists
A synthesis of Swedish court-based and register research finds that convicted male-on-female rapists against adult women cluster around the early thirties: the Malmö-linked pilot and related analyses report an average offender age of roughly 33 and note the largest single age group as 30–40 years [1] [3] [6], and the broader register-based work that spans offenders aged 15–60 forms the backbone of many national estimates [5].
3. Younger ages dominate in gang-rape and juvenile-offender reporting
Investigative journalism and media reviews of gang-rape convictions show a very different profile: Expressen’s review of recent gang-rape convictions found an average age of 21 with many offenders under 18 at the time of the crime, and Aftonbladet reported that seven of ten perpetrators in its sample were between 15 and 20 years old—underscoring that subgroup analyses can produce much lower averages than studies of all adult-victim rapes [2].
4. Variation and limitations: small samples, changing laws and data gaps
Many of the cited academic studies are geographically limited (for example, Malmö, n = 21 convicted rapists) or rely on the specific inclusion criteria of register studies (ages 15–60), so averages are sensitive to sample selection and to Sweden’s evolving rape law and reporting patterns; official criminal statistics exist through Brå but public-facing summaries emphasize counts and demographics rather than a single, definitive national “average age” for convicted rapists [7] [8].
5. Immigrant-background research and age reporting
Recent follow-up research analyzing immigrant background and convictions uses broad register data and controls for age ranges but does not contradict the early-30s average for adult-victim rapists; these studies’ focus is on background and risk factors rather than establishing a new national mean age, and the register inclusion of ages 15–60 affects interpretation [9] [10] [5].
6. Bottom line: best-supported, qualified answer
Given the available peer-reviewed and court-based reporting, the best-supported, qualified response is that convicted rapists of adult women in Sweden average around 33 years old, while convicted offenders in gang-rape samples and juvenile-focused case series are substantially younger (around 21 in some press analyses); however, the exact “national average” depends on which convictions are included and the time window examined, and official national statistics do not present a single unambiguous average age in the sources reviewed [1] [3] [2] [7].