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CRIME

Sweden’s new lethal violence stats for 2016 analyzed

The rate of lethal violence in Sweden remained at a consistent level in 2016 compared to the previous decade, but a high level in 2017 would mark the start of a change in trend.

Published: 31 March 2017 11:50 CEST
Sweden's new lethal violence stats for 2016 analyzed
File photo of a Swedish Police cordon. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

That's according to Sweden's National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), who have just released their final figures for lethal violence in the country during 2016. The numbers show that there were 106 cases of lethal violence in the Nordic nation last year, a slight decrease compared to the 112 in 2015.

In 2013 and 2014 meanwhile there were 87 instances, but if the average for the last five years is calculated then it lies at 92 cases of lethal violence per year – the same as the level has been since 2002.

“There's no big difference between last year and the previous 10 year period in general. You can say that it's consistent,” Brå’s lethal violence statistician and analyst Nina Forselius told The Local.

“The last two years were at a slightly higher level, but it's still too early to say there's a change in trend, because if you look at the last five years it averages out at 92, and the average has been 92 since 2002. It has been steady. If there was a high level over the next year, then we could start to see a slightly higher average, but for now we can't say that there's any change in direction.”

READ ALSO: Analysis of Sweden's crime stats for 2016

Seen over a longer period of time, the level of lethal violence in Sweden is lower than it was in the 1990s, where the average was 100 instances per year, before dropping to the region of 92 in the 2000s.

“If you look from 2000 until now, we're actually about a tenth lower than during the 1990s,” Forselius observed.


Graph charting the lethal violence trend in Sweden since 2002. The dark line shows the total, the lightest line shows cases where a woman was the victim, and the medium-tone line cases where it was a man. Photo: Brå

Shootings in particular have made headlines in Sweden recently, with high profile cases occurring in the country's major cities during 2016, but Brå's stats show that the level of lethal shootings remained around the same as the average for the last five years.

Shootings accounted for 28 percent of instances of lethal violence in Sweden in 2016, down marginally from 29 percent in 2015 as well as the overall average for the last five years of 29 percent.

“That particular kind of crime is reported about a lot in the media, which means that you can end up with the perception of it happening very often if for example the same instance is reported about several times. And when these kind of crimes happen they're pushed quite hard, so there's a connection there,” Forselius explained.

The proportion of lethal violence shootings account for in Sweden since 2012 (29 percent) is however higher than it was during the 1990s, when they made up 20 percent.

Brå defines lethal violence as murder, manslaughter, infanticide and assault with the outcome of death, but does not include instances deemed to be self-defence.

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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