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Rise in gun deaths among young men in Sweden

The number of gun deaths among young men in Sweden was the highest it's been in 30 years in 2017, new statistics show.

Published: 24 October 2018 14:47 CEST
Rise in gun deaths among young men in Sweden
Police attend a crime scene following a shooting in southern Stockholm. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT

Last year, a total of 26 men under the age of 30 died of gun-related injuries, new statistics from the National Board of Health and Welfare show. This figure is the highest it's been since 1987.

For a long time, the rate of deaths caused by violence and assault has been declining in Sweden, but from 2012 there has been a reversal in the trend with the proportion of such deaths starting to creep back up.

Gun deaths among men aged between 15 and 29 have been the most significant factor behind this rise, with the number significantly higher over the last three years than previously. In total, 2017 saw 37 deaths due to gun injuries among the general population.

When considering only men aged 15-29, the number of deaths due to gun injuries in 2017 was more than quadruple the average figure (six) for the period between 2000 and 2014.

Neither the National Board of Health and Welfare nor the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) were able to provide figures for 2018 when contacted by The Local, and neither organization had information about how the cases were divided by region or demographic factors. However, Jesper Hörnblad, a commissioner at the National Board of Health and Welfare, said 2017 was not an anomaly.

“Over the past three years, it's been around the same level: in 2015, 2016, and 2017, there have been more cases than before, so it's not just an outlier, it's three years in a row that the number has been high,” Hörnblad told The Local.

The National Board of Health and Welfare's statistics relating to deaths caused by assault by another person show a similar pattern.

Over the past ten years, these figures show that the murder rate among men aged 15-29 has increased, reaching a peak of 42 cases in 2017 (see the graph below). There were 26 such cases recorded in 2007, and between 2008 and 2013 the figure was under 20 each year. But this started increasing in 2014, with 21 such murders, followed by 39 in 2015 and 29 in 2016.

READ ALSO: Sweden's deadly violence stats for 2017

In Stockholm alone, 20 men aged between 15 and 30 died due to an attack by another person in 2017, whereas the figure had been below ten each year since 2007. In Västra Götaland there were nine such deaths, above the average for the past decade but below the peak of 2015 when 14 such cases were recorded. And in Skåne, there were also nine such deaths, down from ten the previous year but well above average.

One possible reason for the rise is an increased access to weapons, something Swedish police have tried to tackle with recent amnesties.

LONG READ: How Sweden is cracking down on illegal weapons

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POLICE

Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

A new report in Dagens Nyheter has revealed over 514 suspected leaks of sensitive information from at least 30 members of the police force to criminals since 2018. Here's what we know so far.

Published: 30 April 2024 12:28 CEST
Updated: 30 April 2024 15:45 CEST
Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

What’s happened?

According to an investigative report by newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN), multiple gang members have infiltrated the police force by, for example, dating police employees, or using family connections to gain access to sensitive information about ongoing cases.

The first article in DN’s series focuses on a woman the newspaper calls Elin, who met a man, Jonas (not his real name), on a dating app when she had one year left of her police education. She falls in love, but his only goal with the relationship is to get a source within the police force which he can use for access to secret information.

Over the course of four years until she was caught, she made multiple illegal searches in the police register for Jonas, his associates and enemies, as well as providing him with information on ongoing investigations against him.

Other cases investigated by the newspaper include a border guard who sold classified information to gangs, a police officer who leaked information to what DN describes as “one of Sweden’s most notorious criminals” and an investigator who was dating a man she was investigating, who she shared screenshots of sensitive information with.

In another case, the police received a tip-off that information was being leaked to the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. It was discovered that a group of five alarm operators had made an unusually high number of searches for members of the Hells Angels, who were later discovered to have connections with the gang that they had lied about during their background checks.

What have the consequences of these leaks been?

In some cases, the leaks preceded revenge attacks on enemies of the gang member involved in the relationship. In other cases, the gang members’ enemies disappeared or were murdered.

Some of the people from the police force involved in the leaks were sentenced to fines for illegal data access or breaches of professional secrecy, while the evidence against others was not sufficient to prosecute. 

At least 30 employees had for different reasons been considered “security risks” and either resigned or were forced to quit, the newspaper reported, with over 514 suspected leaks taking place from police to criminals since 2018.

How do criminals find police officers?

According to DN, they look for things that can be used as blackmail, like police officers who buy drugs, or set “honey traps”, like the one used against Elin, where they meet police officers or students on dating apps and start a relationship.

“You take Tinder, for example, and set your search radius so the police school is in the centre. When you get a match, it’s easy to check if it’s a student, through class lists or how they present themselves on social media. They’re proud of their line of work,” Jonas told DN.

They might also use their family connections to put pressure on relatives who work in the police force.

Why is this important?

It’s important because Sweden has seen a rise in gang-related violence in recent years, with a surge in shootings and bombings as gangs fight for control over different drug markets.

Swedes also have a high level of trust in the police force – 72 percent according to a 2024 study by Medieakademin, topping the list of state authorities, with a higher level of trust than universities, healthcare, the courts and even the Swedish church. This was five percent higher than in 2023.

Although the vast majority of police officers do not leak information to criminal networks, Sweden does not have a history of organised crime infiltrating the police force, so officials are keeping a close eye on these leaks to make sure they don’t become more common.

On April 29th, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told TT newswire that the leaks were “very serious”, potentially putting trust in the police force at risk.

“There are many great risks and one is that trust in police declines, that people get the idea that mafia-like methods are used to infiltrate law enforcement,” he said, before adding that he was unable to say whether it constituted a threat to national security or not purely based on the initial DN article.

“But the mere suspicion of these types of connections are damaging,” he told the newswire.

What happens now?

Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer told DN that he planned to call a meeting with police leadership about the reports, which he described as “extremely serious”.

“[At that meeting] we will consider the need for further measures,” he said.

“Leaking sensitive information to criminals is against the law and can have very damaging consequences for the work of the police force,” Strömmer told DN, adding that it could undermine trust in the police and “damage democracy”.

Last summer, the government increased the penalty for breaching professional secrecy, and a special investigator was tasked with looking at a potential reform of the rules on corruption and professional misconduct in February – the Crime Prevention Council is also involved in that investigation, where it has been asked to provide information on how gangs use government employees.

“Protecting the integrity of the justice system against infiltration and other security threats is a central part of the new national strategy against organised crime that the government decided on earlier this year, and it is given the highest priority in our assignments to the authorities,” Strömmer told the newspaper.

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