Summary: A Swedish study of the 2021 rape conviction registry found that most convicted rapists had an immigrant background (first or second generation). A student at the University of Gothenburg filed an ethics complaint, claiming that researchers were not allowed to test the hypothesis of an overrepresentation of immigrants among rapists. The stated purpose of the study was to broadly profile offenders using multiple variables, with country of birth as only one of the descriptive variables. The Swedish Ethics Review Board (Önep) accused the authors of failing to authorize the processing of "sensitive personal data," where "sensitivity" referred to political sensitivity rather than identification risk. The investigative documents criticized the researchers for failing to explain how the research would "reduce exclusion and improve integration" of immigrants. The case dragged on for years, but was closed in 2023, when the attorney general completed a preliminary investigation and the authors were not found guilty. The same authors later published a study in 2024 profiling perpetrators of gun homicides, using similar variables but omitting immigration status, although they used the same registration data. The text argues that the omission of immigrant status from the later study reflects a fear of negative reactions and risk to careers after the earlier controversy. Sweden is described as a much less transparent country than Denmark in terms of statistics related to immigration, including crime and fiscal impact. Denmark's statistics agency regularly publishes immigration reports containing analyses of crime by country of origin and provides the public with data on convictions by country of origin. Sweden's statistics agency Brå rarely publishes immigration and crime reports (a long hiatus between 2005 and 2021) and does not release raw browsable data containing immigration details. Swedish immigration/crime surveys are described as avoiding breakdowns by country of birth, typically using broad regions instead. The Swedish Statistics Authority has reportedly restricted researchers' access to detailed microdata on country of birth since 2007. Example (Ek, 2024) cites an ethics committee condition prohibiting publication of results at the national level when "sensitive" variables such as country of birth are used, forcing country names to be omitted. It is generally argued that Sweden's institutional constraints and negative public reaction have a chilling effect that leads researchers to avoid research on the effects of immigration, even if it is not formally prohibited.